The IRS isn’t leaving gambling reporting to chance. It has issued new final regulations clarifying and expanding the rules for payors of slot, bingo and keno winnings. Most notably, in response to an outcry from the gambling industry, higher ...

• Casino Rules Under 21 Years
• Vegas Casino Rules For Under 21

Casino Rules Under 21 Years

The IRS isn’t leaving gambling reporting to chance. It has issued new final regulations clarifying and expanding the rules for payors of slot, bingo and keno winnings. Most notably, in response to an outcry from the gambling industry, higher thresholds for reporting responsibilities were retained (IRS Reg. 1.6401-10, 12/29/16).

Legal gambling ages across the US vary, with states setting the minimum age at either 18 or 21. This can however change depending on the type of gambling, as well as if you're playing in a Native.

1. In fact, casino staff will typically prevent anyone under the age of 21 from standing or sitting down within their gaming areas. In some cases, nobody under the age of 18 is even allowed to pass through the casino doors.
2. The IRS isn’t leaving gambling reporting to chance. It has issued new final regulations clarifying and expanding the rules for payors of slot, bingo and keno winnings. Most notably, in response.
3. The primary guest is responsible for all guests under the age of 21 in their guest room. Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian over the age of 21 at all times. Children and young adults under the age of 21 must be accompanied by a security escort while on the Casino Level, including to and from the restaurants and shops.
4. A blackjack, or natural, is a total of 21 in your first two cards. A blackjack is therefore an Ace and any ten-valued card, with the additional requirement that these be your first two cards. If you split a pair of Aces for example, and then draw a ten-valued card on one of the Aces, this is not a blackjack, but rather a total of 21.

“Commentators overwhelmingly opposed the idea of reducing these reporting thresholds. Payors opposed lowering the thresholds because it would result in more reporting, which would increase compliance burdens for the industry,” said the IRS in the regulations. “In fact, many commentators suggested that rather than reducing the current thresholds, they should be increased to account for inflation. These final regulations do not change the existing reporting thresholds for bingo, keno, and slot machine play.”

For taxpayers, gambling winnings are treated as taxable income on federal income tax returns, but the tax may be offset by losses up to the amount of the winnings. For example, if you win $5,000 during the year and incur losses of $4,500 in the same year, you owe tax on only $500. The losses are reported on Schedule A, but aren’t subject to the usual 2%-of-AGI floor for miscellaneous deductions.

For businesses, information reporting is required for payments of $600 or more to a taxpayer during the year. While temporary regulations had boosted the reporting thresholds for winnings from bingo games and slot machines to $1,200 and $1,500 for keno games, proposals would have lowered these amounts back to $600.

The information is reported on Form W-2G, “Certain Gambling Winnings,” which must be filed by February 28 of the following year; March 31, if filed electronically.

Now the new regulations hold the line on the reporting thresholds for bingo, slots and keno games. The regs also retained the rules, with minor modifications, on identifying information that must be provided by gamblers. In addition, they adopted an “aggregate reporting” rule, with winnings for a single gambling session being allowed as an alternative to reporting each win that exceeds the required threshold. A single session is defined as the time between a gambler placing a wager on a certain game and completing the last wager on the game before the end of the same calendar day.

The IRS also agreed to allow gambling institutions to use “gaming days” instead of calendar days for reporting periods if its use is uniform. Gaming days are generally used for other accounting purposes.

Finally, the new final regulations did not include proposed rules that applied to electronically tracked systems for slot machines. The proposed regulations required reporting for winnings at least $1,200 within a calendar day session. However, the casino industry successfully argued that the technology would not support this and that it would “chill customer use.” Count this as a win for the casinos.

A number of people have left comments in the media this week, after learning that Rivers Casino at Mohawk Harbor was fined for allowing an underaged person — someone not yet 21 — to gamble. They wondered why the age for gambling at the casino isn’t 18, like at racinos and Indian casinos in the State. See “Underage gambler caught — but only after he won $1,300 on slot machines: Schenectady casino fined for letting him on the gambling floor” (Albany Times Union, by Paul Nelson, March 24, 2017); “State fines Rivers Casino $6k for underage-gambler” (Schenectady Daily Gazette, by Steven Cook, March 23, 2017).

Here is the Comment I left at the Gazette explaining the legal situation and speculating on reasons:

You’re right to be a little confused. Although the general age to gamble in New York State is 18, the Upstate New Gaming and Economic Development Act of 2013 added an exception for the commercial “destination” casinos approved by that statute. [click for the text of the Act] You must be 21 to gamble at any new facility licensed under the Act (Schenectady, Seneca Falls/Tyre, Tioga, and Monticello). Here’s the provision:

“§1332. Age for gaming participation 1. No person under the age at which a person is authorized to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages shall enter, or wager in, a licensed casino; provided, however, that such a person may enter a casino facility by way of passage to another room . . . “

Any winnings by a person prohibited under the above section must be forfeited and put into the State’s gaming revenues fund. Those under 21 are still allowed in other parts of the casino facility (restaurants, entertainment events, etc.), but not the actual “casino” rooms where the gambling is allowed.

“Racino” locations and Indian reservations may continue to allow 18 year-olds to gamble. Such facilities either send them into special under-21 areas or give them wristbands indicating they are under 21, so they won’t be served alcohol. Attempts by lawmakers and others to raise the gambling age at the racinos have gone nowhere in the State Legislature.

Like many laws that seem illogical, the 21-age limit was probably a political concession to get the Constitutional Amendment and the 2013 Act passed. My guess is that the existing racino locations (which do not have live table games) pressed hard to have this advantage over the new commercial casinos; it might also have been a way to get the votes of others who were anti-gambling in general.

Many people are concerned that the younger you are when introduced to casino gambling the more likely it is that you will develop a gambling problem. The mixture of alcohol and gambling is even more worrisome. See our posting “what will the casino mean for Union College students?“, which discusses such issues, and our particular concern over Rush Street Gaming’s practice of targeting younger gamblers. And see “Rush Street takes aim at adolescents” (Sept. 9, 2014).

Vegas Casino Rules For Under 21

Note that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has had to fine Rush Street’s Philadelphia casino, SugarHouse, numerous times for allowing underage gamblers and persons on the self-exclusion list to gamble. See details at our 2016 problem gambling post http://tinyurl.com/ProbGambSchdy