Gambling winnings are considered income in the USA. by both state and federal government. If you are playing the slots and hit a jackpot for $1.200 or more, or you hit your numbers at keno and win $1.400 or more, you will issued a W2-G form. The casino will ask you for your name, address, SS number and positive I.D. Then they will hand you your copy of the W2-G. Normally no tax is taken out at the time of your win. However, before the casino will dole your winnings out to you, you will have to sign a statement that you will pay all the required taxes.   This a where tracking by the casino is important. If you do hit a big jackpot, you can actually ask the casino to give you a record of your play. Always remember to keep your loosing sports bets, keno tickets and ATM receipts to balance off your losses. This way you can prove you have lost more than you've won. Think of the poor slob who has doled out thousands of dollars and finally has a good payday and the IRS wants part! Hey, here's a surprise for you. There are actually IRS agents in most of the casinos. Wow! I hope they get an urge and drop a few hundred of their own rent money. Within the last few yesrs, you can claim to be a professional gambler. With the huge popularity of poker lately, people filling as professional gamblers have soared. You can make gambling your full time occupation, but you have to keep good records. Keep all W2-G's, wagering tickets, receipts with dates, times and specific bets, cancelled checks, ATM receipts and all receipts provided by the gambling establishments. Always know with all the poker jackpots now available you may be involved in a huge payout. Just remember to document all gambling. You can only claim the amount of losses that equal your winning. For example, say you win $5.000 gambling and you lose $10.000, you can only deduct $5.000.   So remember, always gamble with a tracking card or rewards card (a casino term) and keep all your receipts. The time will come when you have to counter a big win. If you want to keep your sports wagering domestic, legal betting on athletics events is allowed only in Nevada. Las Vegas alone draws millions of visitors each year expressly for that purpose. Casino operators throughout the Silver State report around $2 billion is bet annually on professional and collegiate competitions ranging from the traditional stick-and-ball games to horse and auto racing   . Management consulting and market research firm "Christiansen Capital Advisors" http://www.cca-i.com   reports Internet wagers worlwide neared $10 billion in 2005, up 40% from the year before. US consumers placed around half of those bets. However, with the spread of the Internet to Asia, gamblers in that hemisphere are expected to start edging out American bettors. You can lose for days, weeks and sometimes months. but, there will be a day when you hit a jackpot, tri-fecta or a Royal Flash. When this happens, something will happen that is very upsetting to most of us. Someone will come up with a slip of paper asking for your social security number. Yes, you will get taxed on your winning...if your winnings are over a certain amount.