A win/loss statement is the year-end summary a casino or sportsbook produces from your tracked play, showing total wagers, winnings, and losses tied to your player’s club card or online account. You use it to help report gambling income on your federal return and, if you itemize, to help substantiate the losses that offset that income. It is a starting point, not proof on its own, and for the 2026 tax year a new law caps the gambling loss deduction at 90% of your losses, so accurate numbers matter more than they used to.
How To Get Your Statement
The source is whichever casino or sportsbook tracked the play. Each one issues its own statement, so if you played at four properties last year, you need four statements.
Brick-and-Mortar Casinos
The quickest route is usually the casino’s online player portal. Log in with your player’s club number and PIN and download the statement as a PDF. If you prefer in person, visit the Player Services desk or cage with a government-issued photo ID. A written request by certified mail also works; include your full legal name, date of birth, the last four digits of your Social Security number, your player’s club card number, and the specific tax year. Online downloads are often available as soon as the casino’s accounting department finalizes the prior year’s data. Mailed requests can take several weeks, so don’t wait until April.
Online Sportsbooks and Betting Apps
Most major online sportsbooks post the annual statement inside your account settings, usually under a heading like “Tax Documents” or “Win/Loss Statement.” Because every wager on these platforms is tied to your login, the statement reflects your complete betting history for the year. Statements typically appear in January or February. If you can’t find yours, contact customer support and ask for it directly.
What The Statement Will Not Show
The casino only sees play that passed through a card or a logged-in account. Cash play at a table where you never presented a player’s card won’t appear. Any untracked session is invisible to the statement, which means your own diary is the only evidence of those wins and losses.
Using The Statement To Report Winnings
Every dollar you win gambling is taxable, whether or not you receive a W-2G. That includes slot jackpots, poker tournament payouts, sports bets, lottery prizes, and the $20 from the office pool. Total gambling winnings go on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8b, which flows into the “Additional Income” section of your return.1Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Schedule 1 (Form 1040) – Additional Income and Adjustments to Income The win/loss statement is especially useful for capturing winnings that fell below the W-2G threshold, because those smaller wins are still reportable even though no form was filed.
W-2G Thresholds For 2026
Starting in 2026, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act raised and inflation-adjusted the minimum W-2G reporting threshold to $2,000, up from $600 or $1,200 depending on the type of gambling.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754 (01/2026) The threshold adjusts for inflation each year going forward. Rules differ slightly by game:
- Slots and bingo: a W-2G is issued at $2,000 or more in winnings.
- Keno: $2,000 or more, after subtracting the wager.
- Poker tournaments: $2,000 or more in net winnings (payout minus buy-in).
- Horse racing, sports betting, and other wagers: $2,000 or more, and at least 300 times the amount wagered.
Fewer W-2Gs will be issued in 2026 than in prior years. That doesn’t make the winnings any less taxable; it just shifts more of the tracking burden onto you.
Using The Statement To Deduct Losses
Gambling losses are deductible only if you itemize on Schedule A (Form 1040). They go on Line 16 under “Other Itemized Deductions,” and the deduction is capped at the amount of gambling winnings you reported.3Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Schedule A (Form 1040) You cannot use excess losses to offset wages, investment income, or anything else, and you cannot carry unused losses to a future year.4Internal Revenue Service. Know the Five Important Tips on Gambling Income and Losses
The New 90% Limit For 2026
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed on July 4, 2025, amended 26 U.S.C. § 165(d) to limit the gambling loss deduction to 90% of your losses, effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025.5U.S. Government Publishing Office. 26 USC 165 – Losses Ten percent of your tracked losses are no longer deductible at all.
Say your statement shows $50,000 in winnings and $60,000 in losses. First apply the 90% limit to losses, leaving $54,000. Then cap that at winnings, giving a $50,000 deduction. In that case the result is the same as before. But if your losses were $50,000 against $50,000 in winnings, you’d only deduct $45,000. You broke even at the casino and still get taxed on $5,000 in phantom income. The rule applies to both casual and professional gamblers.
Does Itemizing Even Help?
The loss deduction only matters if your total itemized deductions beat the standard deduction, which for 2026 is $16,100 for single filers, $32,200 for married filing jointly, and $24,150 for heads of household.6Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Add state and local taxes, mortgage interest, charitable contributions, and 90% of gambling losses. If that total doesn’t clear the standard deduction, itemizing costs you money, and you end up taxed on the full winnings with no offset.
Why Winnings Hurt Even When You Break Even
Your gross gambling winnings are added to adjusted gross income (AGI) before any loss deduction reduces taxable income. A higher AGI can trigger phaseouts for the Child Tax Credit, education credits, and premium tax credits for marketplace health insurance. It can also increase the taxable portion of Social Security benefits and raise Medicare Part B premiums.
Suppose 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, but your AGI jumps to $100,000. Even if you itemize and deduct $36,000 (90% of $40,000), the inflated AGI has already done its damage to your credit eligibility.
The Session Method
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 machine with $200, play three hours, cash out with $350, and your reportable gain for that session is $150. Netting within sessions can dramatically reduce reported gross winnings, which lowers your AGI and may keep you under thresholds that trigger phaseouts.
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. Each sports bet is generally its own session. The key is consistent, contemporaneous records: note your buy-in and cash-out as each session happens, not from memory weeks later.
What The IRS Actually Wants To See
A win/loss statement is a starting point, not a finish line. The IRS requires an accurate diary or similar record of your gambling activity, plus receipts, tickets, statements, or other records showing both winnings and losses.7Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 419, Gambling Income and Losses In audits, a win/loss statement standing alone has been rejected by the Tax Court in multiple cases because it is a computer summary, not a contemporaneous record of each session.
What Your Gambling Diary Should Include
For each session, record the date, the type of game, the name and location of the casino or sportsbook, and how much you won or lost. For table games, note which table and the approximate hours played. Keep W-2Gs, betting slips, tournament receipts, and screenshots of online bet confirmations as backup. The IRS wants corroboration, not just a spreadsheet you could have built the night before the audit.
How Long To Keep Records
Keep statements, diaries, and backup documents for at least three years from the date you file, which is the standard audit window.8Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 305, Recordkeeping If you underreported income by more than 25% of the gross income on your return, the window extends to six years. If you didn’t file, or filed fraudulently, there’s no time limit. Six years is the safer bet for anyone with significant gambling activity.
Boundaries: Non-Residents And State Taxes
If you’re not a U.S. citizen or resident alien, gambling winnings from U.S. sources are still taxable. You report them on Form 1040-NR using Schedule NEC rather than Schedule 1.7Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 419, Gambling Income and Losses Non-resident aliens generally cannot deduct gambling losses at all, with a narrow exception for residents of Canada under the U.S.–Canada tax treaty. The casino typically withholds 30% at payout, or a lower treaty rate.
State rules are separate. Most states with an income tax also tax gambling winnings, but not all allow you to deduct losses the way the federal return does. Some conform to the federal itemized deduction rules; others disallow the gambling loss deduction entirely. If you gambled in a state other than where you live, you may owe tax to both, though your home state typically gives a credit for taxes paid elsewhere. Check your state revenue department for the specific rules that apply to you.