Well, it’s more like $930 once you take what I paid before that, but anyway, that’s a lot of money. I decided that, now that I’m 21, I really should go to the casino for the first time in my life (well, second, but I was 10 when we went to Vegas) once during the winter break. So I tootled on down to Sandia Casino, got some quarters, and eventually settled down–after a lot of looking around and blowing about 30 bucks in the slots–to play some three-hand video poker. Eventually, I got the 10, jack, queen, and king of spades, so of course I held on to all of them, hoping to get at least something if not a royal flush. I got the ace of spades on the bottom hand, blinked a couple times to make sure that I was seeing things correctly, then realized it was true, did the math on what 4000 quarters is equal to, and cashed it out and went home. I haven’t told my parents yet–I figure it can wait until dinner. I’m thinking of bringing it up by asking Dad how I report a thousand dollars of gambling winnings on my taxes.
So, I’m not quite sure how to do it, and the casino didn’t use a W-2G, but I figure if I report it on the 1040 I’ll probably be okay. I’m looking at the IRS website right now to figure out how to report.
And now I’ve got to figure out what to do with it. I’m trying to decide if I should put most of it in my IRA or if I should buy a $500 CD.
