Not a gambler. Did I just loose an easy $600 ?

Your story is as incorrect as your spelling.

Strangers always want to just GIVE you money. I'm sure that wasn't some kind of scam.

As I understand Americans can be taxed on gambling winnings over $1000.

If you had claimed the ticket and later learned you were on the hook to be taxed for a large chunk of that, that would have meant she was trying to put you on the hook for the taxes while taking an easy $600 where she paid none because there was no record of her winning anything.

Sounds like you made the right call.

I doubt that was about the taxes.

My guess is

1) she is on probation and not allowed there or has an open warrant

2) she is on the hook with the casino (cashed paychecks that weren’t good or something similar)

3) she gamed the system- ticket was fake or machine was rigged or ticket was stolen.

It’s not a taxes issue, although others have correctly noted the mandatory w4 that comes with that size win.

Regardless, you made the right choice. 600 bucks (minus taxes) is 100% not worth hopping in bed with such a person, event momentarily.

kskxnnx wrote:

My guess is

1) she is on probation and not allowed there or has an open warrant=

Yes as this poster said she didn't want to provide ID to the casino for some reason.

Seems fishy enough to not become involved with.

She took you for a fool, after all you did just mix up lose and loose...

I could be wrong but I believe the tax on winnings like that is 50% or close it. So if she gave you $600 but stuck you with the claim you’d net all of $0. Meanwhile, she’d get $600 of ‘clean’ money. You were smart to walk away.

SCAM. There's a couple of obvious tells. 1. She has a partner 2. She denies it to casino worker 3. and here is the biggy, she approached you unsolicited to give you a big sum of money $600 for some minor action.

The tax angle is wrong. Winnings are taxed at your highest marginal tax bracket. The W-2 requirement means that 24% will be withheld for taxes, but how much you are actually taxed depends on your Adjusted Gross Income. Thus, if you cashed the ticket, you'd get $1,200 minus 24% or $912 to split two ways or $456 each. If she cashed the ticket, she'd get $912 and the amount withheld (24%) would offset her eventual tax liability. See, it makes ZERO sense for her to split the winnings with you.

Anytime a stranger approaches you and offers you money like this, it's a scam.

So what is the scam? I don't know. My first guess is the ticket is a forgery, but that's small change. My real guess is that after you cashed the ticket, the partner or a third party would approach you claiming to be undercover law enforcement and accuse you of breaking some law by cashing the ticket for someone else and would offer to let it slide for $xx amount, which would be more than $1,200. If you didn't have it, they would go to an ATM for you to withdraw it.

Regardless, it's a scam.

If you don't believe me, call the state Attorney General's office and ask. They will say... yeah, it's a scam. It typically works like this... and then explain it to you.

In Atlantic City:

1. If you win $1,200 or more on a slot machine, the machine locks up and the money will be hand paid. The attendant will come to your machine and take your ID. You wait at the machine while the casino verfies your information, looks at the camera footage (to make YOU were the one sitting at the machine when the prize was won), then brings a W2-G tax form to you, along with your winnings. You can ask that taxes (but only Federal taxes) be taken out of your winnings; if you request that option, the casino takes out a flat 26%. When you do your Federal and State Income Taxes for the year, you are required to report it and submit the W2-G. Total taxes taken out will depend on your income bracket when you do your 1040.

2. If you want to share the winnings with someone you are with, you can request separate W2-G's. You can't avoid the W2-G, even if the "split" $1,200 win is $600 for each person and each person will get a separate W2-G.

3. When they check your ID, it will show up if you owe money for child support or things such as that.

4. I would say that the woman that won the prize did not want to give that information to the casino, or she would have been flagged and didn't want that. Don't know if the casino that you were at checks the camera footage; if it does, then the woman is out of luck.

5. There was a case in Vegas, I think, a few years ago, where a minor was playing a machine, hit a good size jackpot, and then switched seats with his father. Don't know what the final outcome was, but the casino did not pay out the prize. The father tried to sue, which is about the dumbest thing I ever heard of.

6. Tip of the Day: Put your money on Lucky Dan, 3rd race at Riverside.

Most likely this is a troll thread, but in the off chance that it isn't, most likely scenario is this lady owed money, either to the casino or perhaps had a garnishment of income and once she identified herself, all the money would be used for that. So she figured she could have someone else claim it and walk away with some $$$.

No chance it hell would I ever get myself mixed up in some kind of scheme like this.

Also, if she's on public assistance. They won't cash it when the winnings are over a certain threshhold.

Should have cashed in then kept the whole sum. Put that old lady in her place

Gasp! Spelled lose wrong. Gmafb. It’s letsrun!

Got the info I was interested in, thank you letsrun sleuths!

I own two small casinos. She was asking you to put your name on the tax form. It’s tax fraud. Plain and simple. W2Gs are issued for slot winnings of 1200 or more without deductions for the initial bet. Most casinos do care about this! They are highly licensed. We are not allowed to pay anyone but the person who won. That doesn’t mean you might not find an employee who doesn’t care.

Malmo

You are totally wrong. Won’t cash what? The winnings are paid in cash

Depending on what state you were in she could have been liable to have the whole thing withheld for a number of things such as child support etc

There are very few states that have mandatory withholding taxes on Jackpots.