Controversial Question on claiming gambling winnings

I've had people ask me to claim a slot machine jackpot for them. Is this legal?

Let me explain…

Person A wins a jackpot over $1200. Person B agrees to claim it (before the slot attendant arrives) -- usually for some money. Casino gives paperwork and payout to Person B. Is Person A breaking any rules from the casino? any tax rules by state? any federal rules?

would love some advice on this. i guess the question is, can someone else claim Person A's winnings? Doesn't this happen in the lottery?

timely help is appreciated

I don't have an answer for you but I am interested as well.

Last year one of my friends was sitting at a bar in the casino. The guy next to him was chatting with him while they both played keno. A few minutes later the guy said "oh F" , my buddy looked over and saw that he won $1500. He said congrats but they guy told him he couldn't get the pay out. He handed my buddy his card and asked him to collect the money and they would split it. The guy left the casino very quickly.

He was either on the banned list and would get in trouble or was afraid his wife would find out since it was a taxable prize. He ended up collecting the money and getting the w2g. My buddy and I deliberated for about an hour trying to figure out what to do with the money. He decided to call the guy and split it. He was afraid that if he didn't the guy may call the casino and make up some kind of story to get him in trouble. I tried to convince him to just keep the money.

Sorry for derailing thread, I wanted to share my story.

Definitively opens the door to trouble. If it were so easy casinos would just claim them with identities of the dead, homeless and missing.

Quote: stacks

I've had people ask me to claim a slot machine jackpot for them. Is this legal?

Let me explain…

Person A wins a jackpot over $1200. Person B agrees to claim it (before the slot attendant arrives) -- usually for some money. Casino gives paperwork and payout to Person B. Is Person A breaking any rules from the casino? any tax rules by state? any federal rules?

would love some advice on this. i guess the question is, can someone else claim Person A's winnings? Doesn't this happen in the lottery?

timely help is appreciated

I think its fine. In the case of the lottery, its a bearer document. He who holds it owns it.
Lots of 5 per centers at the track, will cash a huge win for a 5 per cent cut.
The only people trying to go after the 5 per centers is the IRS.

I've done this for a friend twice. He wins a jackpot greater than $1199.99, and I, who was sitting next to him, got the tax slip. We just swapped seats. Both times we didn't remove his card but the attendant noticed and said it doesn't matter what the name on the card is, it only matters who was playing at the time of the hit. If they had reviewed the video they would have given the tax slip to him, but they didn't. I also imagine we would have both been thrown out. But it is not against the law.

Wonder if anyone has ever refused a payout because they would have ended up having to pay more in taxes if the W2G showed up on their record.

Quote: Perdition

Wonder if anyone has ever refused a payout because they would have ended up having to pay more in taxes if the W2G showed up on their record.

Some people don't file taxes at all and this
would put them on the grid. I knew people
in the antique biz who hadn't filed a return
in 20 years.

So at that point is the money just surrendered back to the casino or do they do the move where they take 28% and give you the rest?

Quote: Perdition

Wonder if anyone has ever refused a payout because they would have ended up having to pay more in taxes if the W2G showed up on their record.

Once I was at the casino and heard the bells go off on the other side of the bank. I walk 5 feet around and nobody is there as I'm standing in front of the machine showing a $5000 jackpot on a quarter Munsters game. At the same time I just got there, a man appeared from nowhere, says yes weirdly and runs to sit at the machine. I couldn't help but be very suspicious he didn't trigger it and someone else hit it an ran out of the casino. The exit was nearby only 10 feet away so it's possible. The whole incident just never felt right.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

Once I was at the casino and heard the bells go off on the other side of the bank. I walk 5 feet around and nobody is there as I'm standing in front of the machine showing a $5000 jackpot on a quarter Munsters game. At the same time I just got there, a man appeared from nowhere, says yes weirdly and runs to sit at the machine. I couldn't help but be very suspicious he didn't trigger it and someone else hit it an ran out of the casino. The exit was nearby only 10 feet away so it's possible. The whole incident just never felt right.

This all seems kind of absurd. Say you want to stay off the grid and you don't pay taxes. Last thing you should be doing going into a casino where you can be put on the grid and made to file a return by winning big.

I think this is illegal, especially if you are doing it to avoid paying taxes yourself, even if the other person is paying the taxes. I think one reason for this is, the receiver may have losses for that year, they could then write the losses off VS the win or be in a different tax bracket.

I heard some states can take your Jackpot and apply it to outstanding debts if you owe the government money even for child support.

If you want to give tax liability to someone, you can use a 5754 form after the fact, or present one to the casino at the time of the jackpot, casinos are supposed to separate the jackpot to your specifications. I don't suggest doing this in the casino if you are an AP, Unless its for a very large amount in the high hundreds of thousands. They might tie you together as a team and casinos do not like this, of course most real AP's probably already know that.

I have heard of situations where the IRS go after someone signing over many Jackpots to someone who was not filing properly or owed large amounts of unpaid taxes.

I have seen casinos refuse payment to the seat switcher when AP's were caught doing this. Its a NO, NO in most casinos. Casinos will often see who's card was in the machine at the time of the jackpot and then only want to pay that person. If you claim they just left their card in the machine they may go to the cameras, it's been done.

I will add: I don't know the exact laws.

It seems like most of you are forgetting you have to trust the person cashing out. If it's a stranger, no way.

Second.....many of us don't carry an ID which has our SS# on it. You could easily give a false number and walk free. I wonder to this day if they refuse to pay people without proper tax ID's such as a SS card would I assume be. I was once refused a payout at a horse track in Florida for this very reason. Had to return with my SS card, which I don't have at this moment in this long old life.

I told this story before. 15 years ago I won a $2500
jackpot in Jan and I never play slots. I tried to give
it to my wife and they wouldn't let me. 15 months
later at tax time I forgot all about it and didn't
remember it for years. Never heard a word about
it from anybody.

I think what happened is the casino never turned
in the paperwork. I heard 5 years ago the gov't is
cracking down on casinos for not turning over
everything they should. It costs the casinos money
to keep track of all that paperwork and they get
nothing out of it in return.

I hear this is very common in NY state regulated slot places, but not NA casinos. Any thing over $600 will be paid at the cashier. Any debts owed to NY such as unemployment, child support, state taxes, will be withheld. Since the machines print tickets which can be physically transferred easily, there are often people trying to sell them at a discount. I bet there are a lot of counterfeit tickets too.

I was playing at the Borgata in AC frequently. I got comped 2 rooms and brought my mom there for one night and 2 days for cover. I played the 9/6 JOB vp there for cover from time to time because I was running way over ev on the games I was there for and wanted to show some losses and she likes the .25 slots anyway. Every time I hand her a $20 when she's on a slot machine she has to say, "I'm an idiot" before I let go of the $20. That's beside the point though. It was nearing midnight the first day and I had her sitting next to me and naturally I hit a royal on a $5 machine. So much for some losses for cover. I asked the attendant if I could put it in my mom's name. They said sure, as long as she was sitting next to me. The same thing happened about 2 months later on another $5 vp machine while she was up in her room for the night and the attendant told me no, she had to be sitting there next to me. I asked them to let me run up and get her but they wouldn't. I gave up on playing 9/6 JOB vp for cover.