Thanks everyone. To answer the tax thing let me try to give the best answer I can. This is all for federal purposes. States may vary. All income form games, lotteries, raffles, gambling, etc is considered earned income and must be reported on your 1040. You can offset wins with losses of the same type (gambling losses can be claimed up to the amount of your winnings). In most instances, any time you "earn" $600 or more in a tax year (calendar year for most of us) the person/group paying the earnings has to report it to the IRS in addition to you having to claim it. At a casino the rule is a little different. They have to report any win that has a pay out of 300:1 or higher. My $12,900 win was actually a main bet of $50 that paid 200:1, and two side bet that paid $10 @ 40:1 and $1 @ 2500:1. They only win that the casino has to report (and they gave me a 1099/W2/G for ) is the $2500. Sooooo, it is on my honesty as a law abiding citizen to report the other $10,400 when i do my taxes.
The casino did NOT reduce my winnings at all in either case. The first time (at the slot machine) I got 100 $100 bills. Thursday they slid me 500 purple chips ($500 each) and 4 black chips ($100 each). I gave the four black chips to the dealer and the other three people who were playing at the same table with me at the time.
