A casino win/loss statement is a report or letter from a casino that summarizes a person’s gambling activity. Typically, such reports total the gambler’s activity by year, activity, and location. Frequently, the IRS refuses to accept a casino’s win/loss statement as evidence of a gambler’s losses. As an alternative, the [...]

Many gamblers and tax professionals want to know when casinos send out their win/loss statements. The short answer is “it depends.” First of all, it is important to realize that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has no authority to regulate the format, production or timing of casino win/loss statements. Second, [...]

The IRS hates casino win/loss statements for two main reasons – one legal and the other practical. First of all, the IRS has the proper legal authority to disallow the usage of most casino win/loss statements. The Courts and the IRS have interpreted Section 165(d) of the Internal Revenue Code [...]

  Over the years, the US Tax Court has reviewed many cases when casino win/loss statements (or their equivalent) were offered into evidence by the taxpayer. None of the Tax Court judges found the documents helpful or persuasive. Lets examine each of these cases in turn. Mayer v. Commissioner of [...]

Gamblers love to use casino win/loss statements because it is easy. Just report the amounts from the casino win/loss statements. No muss, no fuss. No record keeping hassles. You’re done. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. For starters, the Internal Revenue Code requires taxpayers to keep and maintain adequate records [...]

Without exception, every casino win/loss statement has some type of disclaimer language. The casinos essentially discourage the gambler, the IRS, and anyone else for that matter from using these amounts for any accounting or tax purposes. What the casinos are saying, without really admitting, is that the information summarized in [...]