It doesn’t matter if a rec gambler views themselves as a kind of business with income and expenses. Individuals are not businesses under the law, unless they are actually incorporated.

If you win $2000 and then lose $2000 you *did* have “income”, both by definition, and also by IRS guidelines. What you didn’t have is “profit”. Those are two different things. We don’t have an individual “profit” tax in the US, because historically it’s harder for the IRS to track expenses than it is revenue. Businesses are allowed to deduct most expenses because businesses have much higher reporting requirements which make it easier for the IRS to track the expense part of the equation. This is the same reason you are allowed to deduct stock losses. Your brokerage is responsible for the reporting. Not you. When individuals are required to do the same kind of record keeping, or when technology just makes it easier for the government to track things, then I think you might see individuals treated more like businesses. But like I mentioned before, this will undoubtedly be a double-edged sword.

I totally understand how you or anyone else might view it as being unfair, since you believe you should be taxed on profit, not income, like a business. While that is certainly not exactly how it works with rec gambling, it’s pretty close. You are allowed to deduct losses up to winnings. The marginal standard deduction increase in 2017 might make it so a relatively small number of rec gamblers find it more beneficial not to itemize. While that may or may not be good for them individually, I hardly see how this represents a “ludicrous” situation, or some sort of monumental change in the law. Itemization is still a thing for federal tax purposes. And I will have you know that there are jurisdictions which don’t even allow deduction of things like poker tourney entries at all. No at all. I can imagine what you might think of the fairness something like that.

Except that professional poker players -do- only declare the profit as income. Only recreational players are required to declare all winnings as income and separately (if they choose) itemize losses as deductions. There are several other trade-offs involved with pro poker income, but I’ve never really understood why this option isn’t available to everyone.

Exactly. And under the idea that I had "income" when I win 1k at blackjack regardless of whether I win or lose for the year, why don't I have income when I sell stock for $50 when I bought it also for $50? Isn't capital gains taxing on "profit" by your definition, rather than income? Or hell why not have it be where you have to itemize by each hand/transaction. Playing $25 blackjack, lose a hand, $25 deduction. Win a hand, $25 income. Playing slots at $5/spin, each spin is separate income/deduction. Why can I net per "session" but not per tax period? It's logical to you that if I buyin $500 for poker, and take my stack up to $1000 that it counts as $500 income if I table change and then lose it all, but not if I lose it all at my original table?

Or, hey, if I bag Day 2 of a $500 tourney, and my ICM of my stack is $2300, why not count that $1800 as "income" then when I bust for $1800, I can deduct $500?

Because incorporation is a big deal. You are forming a legal entity with all the rights and responsibilities that entails. Individuals are not treated as corporate entities for the purposes of taxation.

If a casino were required by law to track your wins and losses to the degree brokerages are required by law to track your buy/sells, then what you describe may make sense. But I don’t think casinos would like that very much and likely would lobby against it. It’s enough of a headache for them to comply with increased money laundering regulations that were put in place after 9-11.

I hope you see I understand your point of view. You just have to look at it from the IRS’ point of view. They don’t trust individuals. And why should they? I mean poker players routinely and openly discuss and conspire to dodge their tax responsibilities.

Can we please put the tax related conversation in a new thread? I'm not saying it's not useful, but it just doesn't belong here.

Life is all just one big session

I’ll settle up with everyone at time of my death, but not before

Has anyone else not yet received their tier bonus from the 5x promotion 6/8 to 6/10? I am working with someone at CET to resolve it, but I don’t understand why this is so difficult. They give you tier points immediately when you do something to earn them. They should be able to give you 5x immediately too. Why do we have to wait and/or pull teeth.

Are you new to caesars?

I actually did get my April promotion applied right away. I was there in June, but am not sure.

I received mine right away(usually takes a few days)

Because the machine has all the info needed to credit you the TC as you earn them and it is programmed to do this. The bonus credits are different. The machine you are playing doesn’t know if you h@ve reached the max bonus credits or even if you swiped to earn bonus credits.

These information must be joined in the back office along with any other necessary. They are not doing this for one person many thousands and your data does not immediately show up in the main database. And they are not doing just these calcs on the main db. It is doing all its other stuff, much of which is a higher priority.

While i am certain they could do better faster but it won’t be instantaneous

You don't understand why the IRS screws the average guy? ROTFLOL

I don’t play slots. Just table games. I get rated, I get tier points, and they are added to my account very soon after I leave the table. This is all computerized. I feel like one of the most profitable industries is using technology from
30 years ago if they can’t manage to give people the points they have earned in a timely fashion without having a human being sift through things.

Not remotely. Going on 14 years.

How many hours of 1/2 would it take to achieve diamond?

I got it with the wyndam Match

Only horseshoe harrahs and cheap on non weekends, and they only allow 3 reservations at a time.

Still there are deals to be had in specific days and at specific hotels. Like harrahs could be 100 a night where planet Hollywood for some reason is 50. And then horseshoe, linq etc has many 10 dollar nights.

To get weekends, I assume I'd have to put in a lot of play.

Sad that I can't go mgm gold, I have pearl from the mlife credit card

I don’t think so but heading in I always assume I’m going to get fooked in the azz and only get half of what I deserve but still try and get enough points anyway

I’ve never been able to pull teeth to change an outcome but that’s also I’ve never even contemplated undertaking what I would imagine is a nightmare

Well, fortunately I am still on site and have access to a TR supervisor who is trying to help me. But even she says it’s out of her hands and she’s waiting for a response from some other division. We’ve been waiting for over a week. There’s literally a person who has to check their email (there is no phone number, apparently) and assuming they got the message and aren’t on vacation or something, has to go through some laborious process to confirm the points should be added. And they have to do that for anyone that has any issue. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Meanwhile, the TR desk computer shows the dates I played and the tier points I earned on each date. It should literally take 1 minute to get it right, but instead it’s now 5+ weeks later and I’m still not sure what the end result will be.

It’s crazy to me that they have this promotion which in actuality lowers the value of every tier point you earn, and then makes it significantly more annoying to get those points. It’s an ass-backwards promotion.

How much are $10 nights after resort fees?

Resort fee is free w Diamojd and like 50 a night without it but there are free/cheap ways to get diamond. Like the wyndam match mentioned.

It looks like Wyndham is now back to matching with Hilton. Can anyone confirm? I know it wasn't open for about a year. But that allows you to match back to Caesars (assuming they accept).

Which forum are tax questions usually asked?
i have a question about gambling deductions (ie: car mileage) and how to offset gambling wins

I was just stating that this thread isn't really the right place for those tax posts (or where I would expect you'd get the best advice). A new thread here would be more appropriate or another forum on this site (if there is one that addresses these issues).

It's just not a CET issue, which was my point.

You can only deduct gambling expense if you file as a pro

no according to this: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p529

"You deduct your gambling losses for the year on your Schedule A (Form 1040).
Gambling losses include the actual cost of wagers plus expenses incurred in connection with the conduct of the gambling activity, such as travel to and from a casino."

Apparently, only car mileage (and gambling loses) can be deducted if not filing as a Pro.

'Schedule A' is itemized deductions that anyone can use if overall deductions is greater than than standard deduction of $12k.
but i have no idea where to put it in 'Sched A' such it it only deducts from gambling wins and not regular income like job. (can't deduct more than gambling winnings)