I think your idea is very good and I also think it is not quite hopeless and we should not resign and say "There is nothing we can do about this".
Because of your message, I have just sent the following email to the Senator of Nevada, John Ensign and I intend to sent more to the others.
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Las Vegas, May 17, 2007
Dear Senator,
My wife and I are retired and have to live on a relatively small, fixed income. However, we like to gamble and do this every day. As you know, when you gamble a lot eventually you hit a jackpot even on 25 cent machines. As you also know there is no such a thing as winning in a casino for small time gamblers.
This is our problem: The limit to get a W2-G form is 1200 Dollars and this has been the case for many years, never adjusted for inflation. This low limit is killing us financially.
What has been a sufficient limit many years back to protect small time gamblers from getting into the clutches of the IRS is now a nightmare to us because the "Adjusted Gross Income" does not include the net winnings of gambling but the gross winnings, that means you are being taxed for income you did not get and on top of that you lose all your old age benefits and your Social Security Income gets taxed up to 80 %. Other people spend their money on a cruise or other vacation and get the benefits, the gamblers stay home for entertainment and get clobbered. Is that fair? Can you, or do you want to, to do something about this?
If this limit of 1200 Dollars would be increased to 5000 $ it would eliminate the W2-G's for most people who do not pay taxes on winnings anyway because there are no Small Fish winners. The whales who play big time and may indeed win would still get the W2-G's.
Please try, a lot of people would be grateful to you.
Helmut and Lucy
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----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Nowak
To: vpFREE
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 8:58 PM
Subject: [vpFREE] United Front
Currently there is an e-mail circulating the web re uniting to drive down
the price of gas. Regardless where you stand on this issue, it brings up a
point germane to gamblers the world over. Long have I held the belief that
the internet is a powerful force for change, if only harnessed.
And here's my question: How many of you have said to yourself that the
current $1200 rule for W2-G is hopelessly outdated in light of today's
machines (multiple play and high denomination) and in the same breath
lamented, "But what can one person do about it? It would take a law change
and no politician seems interested in tackling this."
Now, from personal experience I know that a politician, if he/she receives
as much as a few e-mails on any particular subject, knows it represents many
more who feel the same way but are uncompelled to write. (The current
conventional wisdom is that one letter represents 100 more who feel the same
way.)
So here's my proposal: You yourself e-mail your federal and state
politicians (their favorite form of communication) and urge them to up the
W2-G limit to $5,000. The feds addresses are easily found at www.usa.gov.,
the State's likewise, www. (state name). gov.
But wait, there's more--also e-mail everyone in your address book that
gambles (or not--you don't have to gamble to be a change-maker) and urge
them to do likewise. If this doesn't get something going, lets do it again
every month until it does.
We can do this. Gamblers of the world unite. We have nothing to lose but
our yokes of oppression...
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