Super Bowl Wins are Taxable

Super Bowl Sunday is not only a big day for football and parties, but it is an even bigger day for sports betting. This year’s Super Bowl was estimated to have had at least $8 billion bet on the game all over the world. In the United States about one percent of the gambling done in Nevada would be considered legal betting. The rest of the gambling for the Super Bowl was done by friends, office pools, and at online casinos. All of which are apparently illegal. All of these huge figures being thrown around are making the government officials chomp at the bit at the thought of all of the possible tax revenue that could be generated from the game alone. The online casino industry and sports betting websites are reporting record numbers from this year’s Super Bowl.
The game had online casino players and sport fans alike going online and betting on things from the results of the game to other things as trivial as who would win the coin toss in the beginning of the game. Online casinos received record bets this year and this means that the winners of these bets will have to report their winnings in their tax returns. This is a responsibility that no one really knows who will take seriously or who will just take their winnings and keep them under the table. In a survey conducted by the Phoenix district manager of H&R Block, Sue Taylor, they found that one third of their customers were not aware that their winnings were taxable.
The online casino industry is very familiar with taxation. Hopefully if you bet a couple of dollars at your office the Internal Revenue Service will not investigate. A senior federal tax analyst for CCH, John W. Roth said "If you win an informal office pool, you technically are supposed to report it. But I think the Internal Revenue Service is more concerned about Internet betting, which is easier to track through credit cards." There are tools that you can purchase to track your gambling so then you can report it accurately at the end of the year.