Gambling Winnings

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, garycarla said:

Thank you very much.  The whole gambling thing with the IRS is a mess.  I have studied the session thing and going to do that next year.  And, am going to submit a correction to this past year using that as well.  One extra question.  What session have you used?  Year, each casino visit, each trip or daily?   As said, IRS has not made it clear, and even if one person gets one way accepted, it does not mean the next will. I would add LOL - but it is not funny!

No worries. Just as an aside, my husband is the gambler in the family, despite me being Chinese-American, lol. 

My husband defines a session as a stretch of gambling time. For example if he goes at 11am gambles, takes a short pause, gambles some more, then breaks for lunch with me at 1:30 (We have a routine)that's one session. If he then goes back at 3:30 and gambles until 6:30 and then breaks for dinner, that's another session. Then if he goes back at 10pm and gambles to 12-1AM, that's another session. As I said he makes notations on his phone to keep track of everything. 

We live in Philadelphia, which is only an hour away from Atlantic City, so we're frequently there. Our basement is full of 'gifts' from the casinos. Just the other day I gave away a kids bike to a single mom whos' kid had his bike stolen, and a food processor to a Facebook acquaintance. 

We are trying to be more discerning about our trips to land casinos and cruises. One year we did 12 cruises, all comped. We have three more cruises this year(total of 10 this year, had to cancel 11th because of covid)and next year we have 4 booked so far: 1 in January on the Virgin, 1 in Feb on Celebrity, 1 in July on Celebrity to Iceland, Scotland, N. Ireland; and one on Carnival in September - 30 days TP Seattle to Brisbane, Australia! All comped!

[garycarla]

Thanks.... a few years back we were doing lots on NCL - comped.  Was able to get a suite a few times along the way as well.  Never come out ahead, but have fun.  Off to Vegas soon.  Thanks for feedback on his "sessions", but sounds like even that detail was not even questioned.  I have had a number of "mail audit/questions" in the past and all were handled with a single letter back to them.  Not gambling related - yet.

[Paphillyguy]

When using sessions do you also deduct gambling losses on your tax return?  I track on a spreadsheet with daily or trip related info incase we get audited.