Congressional Gaming Caucus Co-Chairs Reschenthaler and Titus Introduce Legislation to Raise Tax Threshold on Slot Winnings
Washington, D.C. – Congressional Gaming Caucus Co-Chairs Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14) and Dina Titus (NV-01), and Representatives Anthony Brown (MD-04), Mark Amodei (NV-02), and Steven Horsford (NV-04) introduced the Shifting Limits on Thresholds (SLOT) Act, bipartisan legislation that would raise the outdated tax threshold for slot winnings from $1,200 to $5,000.
“The 1977 slot jackpot reporting threshold hurts both Pennsylvania’s gaming industry and its patrons,” said Rep. Reschenthaler. “Because the threshold has not kept up with inflation, it has resulted in a drastic increase in reportable jackpots, which trigger tax burdens for winners and compliance burdens for casinos. Increasing the threshold will eliminate this onerous red tape, ensuring the gaming industry can continue to support good-paying jobs and foster economic growth in southwestern Pennsylvania and across the country.”
“The current threshold for reporting slot winnings was set at $1,200 in 1977 and has not been updated in the 45 years since. If indexed for inflation, the threshold would be around $5,000. Due to inflation, the number of jackpots hitting that threshold, triggering a shut down of the machine and necessitating excessive paperwork requirements for the patron, has increased dramatically,” said Rep. Titus. “This creates an unnecessary burden on the gaming industry, an economic driver for Southern Nevada and other communities nationwide where slot machines exist. While I believe appropriate taxes should be collected on winnings, raising the threshold would reduce paperwork and ensure this is accomplished more efficiently.”
“Today’s legislation is an important and commonsense step to modernize gaming regulations while supporting our industry's full recovery,” said American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller. “Representatives Titus and Reschenthaler, along with the Congressional Gaming Caucus, are important champions of our industry and I appreciate their relentless efforts to address this outdated rule.”
“We need to ensure our tax code is keeping up with the times, particularly when it comes to the gaming industry. Updating a 45-year-old threshold on slot winnings is common sense and good governance, that both reflects the decades of economic changes since 1977 and reduces excessive paperwork and reporting requirements,” said Rep. Brown. “The SLOT Act is a necessary modernization of our tax code.”
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