A casino or sportsbook win/loss statement is a year-end summary of your tracked play, and for tax purposes you use it two ways: to report your gambling winnings as income, and, if you itemize, to substantiate the losses you deduct against those winnings. Starting with the 2026 tax year, the loss deduction is capped at 90% of your losses (and still can’t exceed your winnings), so the numbers on that statement matter more than they used to.
Getting the Statement
Casinos and sportsbooks build the statement from data captured when you use a player’s club card or a logged-in online account. Play without swiping, and those sessions won’t show up.
For a brick-and-mortar casino, the fastest route is usually the casino’s online player portal: log in with your player’s club number and PIN and download the PDF. You can also visit the Player Services desk with a government-issued photo ID, or mail a written request by certified mail listing your full legal name, date of birth, the last four digits of your Social Security number, your player’s club card number, and the tax year. Online downloads are often available as soon as the casino finalizes the prior year’s data; mailed requests can take weeks.
Online sportsbooks and betting apps usually post the statement inside account settings under something like “Tax Documents” or “Win/Loss Statement,” typically in January or February. Because every wager is tied to your login, the statement covers your full year of play on that platform. If you can’t find it, ask customer support.
What the Statement Doesn’t Capture
A win/loss statement is a starting point, not a finish line. It only reflects tracked play. Cash action at a table where you didn’t present a card, or any session you played without logging in, is missing. And even for tracked play, the Tax Court has rejected win/loss statements standing alone as proof of losses, on the basis that they’re computer summaries rather than contemporaneous records.1Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 419, Gambling Income and Losses Your own diary fills both gaps.
Reporting the Winnings
Every dollar you win gambling is taxable, whether or not you receive a W-2G. Slot jackpots, poker tournament payouts, sports bets, lottery prizes, office pools — all of it. Total gambling winnings go on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8b, which feeds into the “Additional Income” section of your return.2Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Schedule 1 (Form 1040) – Additional Income and Adjustments to Income This is where the statement earns its keep for small wins that never generated a W-2G; those are still reportable.
Starting in 2026, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act raised the minimum W-2G reporting threshold to $2,000, up from $600 or $1,200 depending on the game, and indexed it for inflation going forward.3Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754 (01/2026) Fewer W-2Gs will be issued as a result. Less paper doesn’t mean less tax; it means more of the tracking falls on you.
Deducting the Losses
Gambling losses are deductible only if you itemize on Schedule A (Form 1040), and only up to the amount of gambling winnings you reported.4Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Schedule A (Form 1040) Excess losses don’t offset wages or investment income, and they don’t carry forward to a future year.5Internal Revenue Service. Know the Five Important Tips on Gambling Income and Losses
The 90% Cap Starting in 2026
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, amended 26 U.S.C. § 165(d) to limit the gambling loss deduction to 90% of losses for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025.6U.S. Government Publishing Office. 26 USC 165 – Losses Ten percent of your tracked losses are simply not deductible.
A quick example. If your statement shows $50,000 in winnings and $60,000 in losses, you first apply the 90% limit to losses ($54,000 allowable), then cap that at winnings ($50,000). Deduction: $50,000. But if you won $50,000 and lost $50,000, the 90% haircut drops your allowable losses to $45,000, capped at winnings of $50,000, so you deduct $45,000. You broke even at the casino and still owe tax on $5,000 of phantom income. That applies to casual and professional gamblers alike.
Does Itemizing Even Help?
The loss deduction only reaches your return if your total itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction. For 2026, the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers, $32,200 for married filing jointly, and $24,150 for heads of household.7Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Add your state and local taxes, mortgage interest, charitable gifts, and 90% of your gambling losses. If the total doesn’t clear the standard deduction, itemizing costs you money, and you end up taxed on the full winnings with no offset at all.
The AGI Trap and the Session Method
Gross winnings hit your adjusted gross income before any loss deduction reduces taxable income. A higher AGI can shrink or eliminate the Child Tax Credit, education credits, and premium tax credits for marketplace insurance; it can push more of your Social Security into taxability and raise Medicare Part B premiums.
Say you earned $60,000 at your job and your statement shows $40,000 in winnings and $40,000 in losses. You broke even at the casino. Your AGI is now $100,000. Even after itemizing and deducting $36,000 (90% of $40,000), the damage to credit eligibility is already done at the AGI line.
The session method softens this. The IRS allows you to net wins and losses within a single continuous gambling session rather than reporting every individual wager. Sit down at a slot with $200, play three hours, cash out with $350, and your reportable gain is $150 — not the sum of every winning spin. Only the net session gain flows into AGI.
What counts as a session depends on the activity. A day of slot play at one casino is a common boundary. A single poker tournament from buy-in to bust-out is another. Individual sports bets are generally treated as separate sessions. The method only works if you kept contemporaneous notes of buy-ins and cash-outs; reconstructing sessions from memory in April doesn’t hold up.
Records the IRS Expects
The IRS requires an accurate diary or similar record of your gambling, plus receipts, tickets, statements, or other documentation showing both winnings and losses.1Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 419, Gambling Income and Losses For each session, note the date, the type of game, the name and location of the casino or sportsbook, and the amount won or lost. For table games, note the specific table and roughly how long you played. Keep W-2Gs, betting slips, tournament receipts, and screenshots of online bet confirmations to back it up.
Hold your statements, diaries, and backup for at least three years from the date you filed the return, which is the standard audit window.8Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 305, Recordkeeping If you underreported income by more than 25% of gross income shown on the return, the window extends to six years. No return or a fraudulent one: no time limit. For anyone with meaningful gambling activity, six years is the safer standard.
Non-Resident Aliens
If you’re not a U.S. citizen or resident alien, U.S.-source gambling winnings are still taxable. You report them on Form 1040-NR using Schedule NEC rather than Schedule 1.1Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 419, Gambling Income and Losses Non-resident aliens generally cannot deduct gambling losses, with a narrow exception for Canadian residents under the U.S.–Canada tax treaty. The casino typically withholds 30% at payout, or a lower treaty rate.
State Taxes
Federal rules are only half of it. Most states with an income tax also tax gambling winnings, but not all of them allow a loss deduction; some conform to the federal itemized rules, and others disallow gambling losses entirely. If you gambled outside your home state, you may owe both states, though your home state usually credits tax paid to the other. Check your state’s revenue department for the specifics.