Nevada Rep. pushing to update archaic tax reporting threshold for slot machine winnings

Nevada Rep. Dina Titus (D) plans to take another swing at an archaic tax formula involving slot machine winnings by raising the reporting threshold from $1,200 to $5,000. This would speed up cashing out jackpots for customers and make the process simpler for casinos.

Currently, whenever a slot player wins a jackpot of more than $1,200, the operator is required to prepare a W-2G form that reports the amount of those winnings to the Internal Revenue Service. The policy was adopted in 1977, when a $1,200 jackpot was a big deal and Nevada was the only US state offering legal casino gambling.

Some 46 years later, that landscape has changed dramatically, with commercial and tribal casinos having expanded to all but two states. “There was a time when we were trying to get the Treasury Department to do this through regulation, but they never moved, so we’re just going to push the legislation instead,” Titus said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

With a gaming caucus she heads in place, Titus looks to receive bipartisan support from states that have some form of gaming, adding that “the caucus is going to make it a cause.” She further told Review-Journal that the change is not being only proposed for Las Vegas, but for “everybody.”

Rep. Dina Titus

When a jackpot hits at a slot machine, it is taken offline as attendants check the machine and the winner’s identification to prepare the appropriate paperwork. But sometimes it takes a while for the process to begin, and if a casino is busy and personnel is occupied with other responsibilities, the patron could wait for an hour or longer for the process to start.

Since 2020, more than 15 million W-2G paperwork forms have been filed. With casinos on a roll since the pandemic ended, there are more jackpots than ever to process, a real headache for the IRS. Thus, under Titus’ proposal, the threshold would be raised to $5,000 and indexed to inflation so that the amount would keep up over time.

Titus told Review-Journal that she knows of no opposition to her proposal, and that she expects it would win bipartisan support, if the measure is enough of a priority for most members of Congress. Once the bill makes it through the House, she expects Nevada’s senators would carry the ball to win Senate approval.

However, some analysts are less optimistic about the plan moving forward, based on Congress rarely agreeing on anything. They fear that the dysfunctional legislative body might not see it as a bipartisan issue, meaning the archaic threshold could remain in place as it has done for the last few decades.