Taxes/Casinos/Eye in the Sky?

Whoson1st · Mar 29, 2006

Maybe Fishhead knows for certain about this. But if you are claiming losses in a casino on Schedule A and don't have a paper diary for a given day.....could you and/or would the casino allow you to use their "eye in the sky tape" for proof. This would be if the IRS..said they they don't believe it.??????

May sound far fetched...but I put nothing past the IRS. They probably don't absolutely have to accept your word or "diary".

asap · Apr 3, 2006

No

I doubt sincerely you would get access to tapes for this reason. I would suggest grabbing chips from the dealer's rack if you anticipate needing the tapes later. Or do some blatant card-counting, which is legal. If you take this route, I would suggest informing the pit in advance to be sure they notice.

asap · Apr 3, 2006

More

If you take up card-counting at backjack, you may not have any losses to deal with ;-). On a more serious note, a diary is probably fine, and if you don't have a current day's entry, the most current entry you can make is much better than nothing. Also, the pit tracks your wins and losses at table games if you use your player's club card and will have a cumulative win or loss record which you can request at the end of the year. All this takes foresight and planning, but hope this helps.

Whoson1st · Apr 4, 2006

asap said:
If you take up card-counting at backjack, you may not have any losses to deal with ;-). On a more serious note, a diary is probably fine, and if you don't have a current day's entry, the most current entry you can make is much better than nothing. Also, the pit tracks your wins and losses at table games if you use your player's club card and will have a cumulative win or loss record which you can request at the end of the year. All this takes foresight and planning, but hope this helps.

I never knew those cards kept track of winnings and losses!
I thought they were issued to keep track of how long you played at the craps table or length of time/ Or were like your credit line at a given casino. Had no idea they could be used as a daily record for the player. (In other words...the casino will give you a record if you ask? If that's the case, it better than eye in the sky.) I thought they were for the higher rollers....those cards.

asap · Apr 6, 2006

Still keep a diary

The pit boss will tell you what you have at the end of a session but it won't be dead accurate and may or may not be IRS acceptable, but if you've lost your idea of where you are it will be a way to find out, plus, if you religiously rathole (subtly) and the pit underrates your win or overrates your loss you have a better number for your personal benefit.