A great month for US gambling as Las Vegas Records billion dollar month and threshold on tax reporting on winnings increases! (Photo by Tobias Smietana on Unsplash)
In the US, the online gambling and land-based casino markets are back in business, reporting sizeable revenues once again. Vegas land-based casinos hit yet another billion-dollar month. Plus, more good news comes as the winning threshold required to report to the IRS has now increased as Draconian levels have finally been increased.
Currently, online gambling is technically illegal in Nevada, with no online casino framework in place. However, mobile sports betting is prevalent in the state, and of course, online poker seeing as Las Vegas is the home to the yearly World Series of Poker main event–the biggest even in live poker today.
Live casino companies such as Evolution operating in New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania and Playtech which operates live dealer studios in New Jersey and Michigan are keeping a close eye on the situation as online casinos are bound to hit Las Vegas at some point–especially after the pandemic decimated Las Vegas revenue while the city could only look on in envy of Atlantic City’s steamrolling online casino market reporting over a billion dollars in revenue over 2021 amidst the pandemic.
However, as fear of COVID-19 subsides and people get on with business as usual, Las Vegas is once again a bustling city and the perfect excuse for a quick getaway for US citizens. With a steady flow of traffic coming in via air and land routes, casinos in the ‘City of Dreams’ are recording next to reasonable revenues.
January 2022 figures were 40% more than those recorded in the previous year. It was Clark County, home to Las Vegas, that unsurprisingly netted the lion’s share of revenue, which came to $929 million. That figure is 84% of the figures recorded across the Battle Born State. Interestingly, more than half of that revenue was generated in the main Las Vegas strip totalling $567 million. That’s an improvement of 76% compared to the same period in 2021.
In the shadows of Las Vegas Strip: As for other areas in Vegas, Boulder Strip reported $85 million, while Las Vegas’s downtown area registered a total of $70 million. Another popular gambling district is Reno, where the revenue recorded came to $52 million. There are also huge revenues on top of this coming via online gambling verticals in the state.
Jackpot Tax Threshold Increases Imposed–Officials say tax hike is long overdue
Usually, when the world ‘tax’ and ‘slots’ come into the topic of conversation at Congress, casinos shudder. Especially after a tough couple of years coping with the global coronavirus crisis.
Yet, as the US casino industry makes its recovery attracting gamblers, more positive news come into the limelight, and the word ‘tax’ and ‘slots’ are the key topics. An increase on the tax threshold in regard to reporting wins to the Inland Revenue Services (IRS) on video slots has officially been agreed. The hike has staunch support behind it, in particular from the American Gaming Association (AGA). A spokesperson from AGA said that the rise will support inflation levels as the current version of the law is outdated.
It was the US Congress that pushed House Bill 6937 through the House Committee on Ways and Means. It is a law that has been in place since 1977. It is a bill that is long overdue for a revamp, and casinos surprisingly welcome the move too. Mainly because when the bill was introduced, a win threshold of $1,200 or more must be reported to the IRS. Back then, that was a considerable amount of money, but today it feels like a small amount to win, and then have to report that win for tax reasons.
New slot tax law in short: Now players that win $5,000 or more will need to report the win to the IRS. This is an increase from the previous $1,200 threshold, which was not in line with inflation since the law was created in 1977 and never changed since. The law will also apply to online wins, which will please the likes of Playtech operating multiple verticals in the US.
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