Pray you never get audited. The IRS would have a field day with you just saying....... Unless you are filing as a professional gambler which is different. It is NOT just an even write off as it puts you into a different tax bracket in many cases.
You can read tax court rulings that say that a fully detailed log may not be required, but these are people who clearly are losing way more than they gained and are sad stories in their own right. See Coleman, TC Memo 2020-146, and Gagliardi, TC Memo 2008-10. A contemporaneous, or reasonably contemporaneous, log is best, I usually email someone my trip report statistics or post it here which serves that purpose.
That, followed by the ever present "just print out the players club year end win/loss statement and that will be sufficient", while ignoring the disclaimer of that very statement reminding you that the statement shouldn't be used for tax purposes (because, among other reasons, they cannot be sure they recorded all of your play). Honorary mention would be, "I've filed it that way for years and never had a problem, so it must be correct".
They are two completely different worlds. The casual gambler who has low six figures in W-2Gs and doesn't have income other than wages or retirement distributions plus interest/dividends/cap gains is not at significant risk of getting audited. The deduction-offset method for casual gamblers is not an IRS-approved method, but it has been used millions of times without a peep from the IRS. I used it for 15 years (heh) until I started taking Soc Sec and so started being affected by AGI, in which case I needed to zero out the W2-G income (if possible and practical and true) above the AGI line (via session method accounting) instead of after it (via itemized deduction). People claiming professional gambler status are a completely different animal and have a completely different set of rules. At the suggestion of another poster, I donwloaded Jean Scott's supposed bible on gambling taxes which was written with two IRS Enrolled Agents. For somebody who has zero knowledge, it might be a starting point, but I found it useless. One of the enrolled agents says she tells people not to include their log with their return and says it caused a problem for one of her clients but didn't say why (I can guess why, but she should have explained it exactly so you don't make the same mistake). She said she's had cases ready to go to tax court but they got settled but provided no details. That was as deep as that book got if you are already the least bit conversant with the subject. This stuff is NOT complicated if you can read english and add and subtract. There are well-established legal precedents and reliable information about them can be found on websites (including the IRS's) that are not merely sloppy scattershot blogs. I'm not saying that if you are a babe in the woods, you shouldn't seek out professional advice, or that you should assume that your situation is identical to someone else's. IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING. But the fact is, even if you follow the advice of a tax advisor who 100% knows what they're doing (and how, exactly, are you supposed to determine that?), your mileage may still vary, that's just the nature of the beast. It's not necessary to insert a disclaimer into every opinion one has or when telling someone what approach you yourself are taking.
I agree with your experience with the Scott book. For the most part, it much like this trail of comments. Opinions, or it happened to someone l know, or ....... It was not the factual reading I was expecting. Offered zero help or guidance for me.
Seriously, I would not recommend asking for any tax advice on any message board anywhere, ever. Well, you can ask but I would caution against following it unless you quadruple check it with reputable sources. I am a CPA, but not a tax accountant. So, while I know a little more than the general public about taxes even I have a tax specialist do my taxes. I didn't read every post here in detail, but I would just say some of them are "interesting". Again, I am not a tax pro. Good luck.
No idea if OP took some or all taxes out when paid. I see a lot of people not having federal taxes taken out when winning a hand pay. I recommend asking to have them taken out if in doubt.
with maybe 100 hand pays… only had tax withheld once. Does not increase or increase taxes owed for the year. It is only withholding
It does increase the chance that you will owe tax penalities if you don't do estimated tax payments and the hand pays are large enough. If a person is a serious large gambler, they should get a basic understanding of the tax code and how their gambling will affect their taxable income.
