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Quote: Originally posted by mrcraft on Jun 27, 2014
The lottery will withhold 25% of the win for our Federal withholding starting at $5,000 (or $5,001 I can't remember exactly) regardless of the amount. If one is in a tax bracket higher than 25%, there will be more taxes due when they file though one can deduct loses against the win, if they keep losing draw and scratcher tickets. If we win $10,000, we will get a check for $7,500.
Here's the part people get in trouble with. A lot people think that the amount the CA Lottery withholds is their TOTAL tax obligations and don't realize in many cases they will still owe more money to Uncle Sam. Small amounts may not be an issue, but for people that win 6 or even 7 figures make sure you calculate or hire a CPA/tax attorney and put aside the additional amount that will be due later.
I've never won more than $600 from the Lottery myself either before, but have won $1200+ a few times at a casino to know about gambling taxes.
That is correct, according to the CALottery handbook, they will withold 25% for prizes that amounts to $5000 or more or 33% for prizes $250,000+. The W2-G form you get will indicates prize amount and the amount witheld (as tax paid)
The winner is still accountable for reporting the winning on their tax filing, there is a section to report the W2-G amounts will also have the amount. So if a player that is on the 28% tax bracket, they will have to pay more taxes.
The IRS has a copy of every W2-G reported, now and days they invested a lot to run automated systems to check tax filings from years back.
If they find that your witholding amount and the taxes you paid combined is greater than the tax you owe, they will not do anything. If you owe more for being on the highest bracket, then they'll come after you (with the poor economy) so mrcraft is right that just witholding does not take you off the hook.
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Quote: Originally posted by beachbunny13 on Jun 27, 2014
Mr. Craft thank you for the information.
I think its wise to save some money because with all your income and the winning could put you in a higher tax bracket. I am glad to know they don't hold it for $5,000 or less wins. You will get a 1099 for your winnings anyways.
The differences between W2-G and 1099 are very substantial
W2-G are for wager based winnings, where you had to put a wager to win a taxable amount.
1099 is for non-wager based winnings, e.g. you submitted an entry to a contest and won the prize. Or participating in Wheel of Fortune and winning on it.
W2-G, you do not have to pay additional Social Security and Medicare
1099 you have to pay the self employment tax stuff such as Social Security and Medicare along with income
California United States
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Quote: Originally posted by CAScratcher20 on Jun 27, 2014
I played 4 of the $10 WoF tonight and I also lost on all the tickets.
When entering replay, there is this random message where I got 50, 30, 20, 30 (130 total) entries for the 2nd chance draw. Not sure if this is randomly given out, or is to dilute the chances by lot for people who plan to play little?
The July Product Retail Plan is online for everyone to see, I saw in clear letters about the $20 Million $$ Match that states increased prizes within the $40 to $250 ranges, so they listened to player and retailer feedback. The Powerball and SuperLotto Promotion is for the month of July, 2 Powerball QP and 2 SLP QP for $5, so you save $1 off that combo purchase.
Thanks for this info on the WOF replay, it's what I came here looking for.
The CA Lottery page says the number of entries you get is random. I got eight entries on a $2 WOF and ten on a $5. My barely educated guess is that most of the time you get three times the cost of the ticket in entries, occasionally two or four times, and rarely five.
And am I crazy or is the value of the drawing changing? Today it's $76170. I swear when I first looked at it, it was $65000. Maybe the more people play it, the bigger the prizes get? The rules say five "experiential prize" winners (who also have a cash option of $5000), five $5000 winners, and ten $1000 winners. So the value of the "experiential prize" is $8234? That's a bizarre number.
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Quote: Originally posted by larmanya on Jun 27, 2014
Thanks for this info on the WOF replay, it's what I came here looking for.
The CA Lottery page says the number of entries you get is random. I got eight entries on a $2 WOF and ten on a $5. My barely educated guess is that most of the time you get three times the cost of the ticket in entries, occasionally two or four times, and rarely five.
And am I crazy or is the value of the drawing changing? Today it's $76170. I swear when I first looked at it, it was $65000. Maybe the more people play it, the bigger the prizes get? The rules say five "experiential prize" winners (who also have a cash option of $5000), five $5000 winners, and ten $1000 winners. So the value of the "experiential prize" is $8234? That's a bizarre number.
We went to three 7-11's looking for $5.00 WOF tickets. The first had no WOF tickets, second had just $2 and $10 tickets and the third had all three.
Purchased 6 $5.00 tickets and received two tickets
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Quote: Originally posted by beachbunny13 on Jun 27, 2014
We went to three 7-11's looking for $5.00 WOF tickets. The first had no WOF tickets, second had just $2 and $10 tickets and the third had all three.
Purchased 6 $5.00 tickets and received two tickets
Just entered the other tickets into Second Chance
First ticket 25 entries
Second ticket 10 entries
Third ticket 5 entries
Fourth ticket 25 entries
Total 65 entries
This going to be interesting.
They have an interesting strategy of giving a lot of entries per ticket. I think that they are doing that to encourage people to buy more than they usually would thinking they have a better chance of winning the drawing.
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It didn't hit me until I read MDguy's post above. Last time we had a multi-denominational 2nd chance promotional draws were the Lucky Life draws for $5,000 each in May. In those draws each $1, $2, $5, and $10 LL ticket counted as one entry which I suppose wasn't equitable for those that played mostly $10 LL tickets. In the WoF promotion, the multiplier is random but it seems the total entries per ticket is relative to the ticket price ($2 < $5 < $10).
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Quote: Originally posted by mrcraft on Jun 27, 2014
It didn't hit me until I read MDguy's post above. Last time we had a multi-denominational 2nd chance promotional draws were the Lucky Life draws for $5,000 each in May. In those draws each $1, $2, $5, and $10 LL ticket counted as one entry which I suppose wasn't equitable for those that played mostly $10 LL tickets. In the WoF promotion, the multiplier is random but it seems the total entries per ticket is relative to the ticket price ($2 < $5 < $10).
Yeah, I bought $40 of the $1 LLs and spread my codes out over the five weeks. Got two $10 winners and enough smaller ones that I broke even on it, so yay, free codes! Not that they won me anything, but it was fun.
I feel like they should know better how to do promotions. The LL one was weird like you mentioned, and the California Black Exclusive was silly too -- double codes? All that did was stop me playing those after the promotion ended, because I knew the codes were basically half-strength. Double codes is free to them though, so I see why they did it.
I have similar feelings about $6 for $5 on draw games this July. Basically everyone's SLP play is doubled, so we have to hope for people who don't know about the promotion to build the SLP pot for us. I bet SLP payouts drop.
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I have been playing bitcoin dice online lately instead of scratchers. The house edge is only .75% where I play. Much better than scratchers! Also the payouts are instant and taxes are not withheld. I play for a top prize of $6000. If you are technically inclined you might give it a try.
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Quote: Originally posted by mrcraft on Jun 27, 2014
It didn't hit me until I read MDguy's post above. Last time we had a multi-denominational 2nd chance promotional draws were the Lucky Life draws for $5,000 each in May. In those draws each $1, $2, $5, and $10 LL ticket counted as one entry which I suppose wasn't equitable for those that played mostly $10 LL tickets. In the WoF promotion, the multiplier is random but it seems the total entries per ticket is relative to the ticket price ($2 < $5 < $10).
I believe that this the way these drawings should be all along. For a drawing where different denominations of tickets are accepted (such as WoF, Monopoly, and LL) it should be weighted differently. Those quarterly 3 month draws heavily favor the $1 player as they can enter more entries than the $5 or $10 player.
If I piece together the information posted, the number of entries you get for the WoF game is the ticket denomination price times 1 to 5 as a random value.
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Quote: Originally posted by larmanya on Jun 27, 2014
Yeah, I bought $40 of the $1 LLs and spread my codes out over the five weeks. Got two $10 winners and enough smaller ones that I broke even on it, so yay, free codes! Not that they won me anything, but it was fun.
I feel like they should know better how to do promotions. The LL one was weird like you mentioned, and the California Black Exclusive was silly too -- double codes? All that did was stop me playing those after the promotion ended, because I knew the codes were basically half-strength. Double codes is free to them though, so I see why they did it.
I have similar feelings about $6 for $5 on draw games this July. Basically everyone's SLP play is doubled, so we have to hope for people who don't know about the promotion to build the SLP pot for us. I bet SLP payouts drop.
I think SuperLotto payouts are not too great to begin with as it is a hit or miss game. The 5/5 and the 4/5 + Mega prizes pay about $45-55k (even worse if shared) and $1.5k (many people share this amount)
I played enough SLP during the 6 month streak in which the JP reached $70 million. The most I ever got was 3 out of 5 with no mega or 2 out of 5 with mega for $11.
I think in the handbook, the CALottery is supposed to payout a certain threshold of its income, hence you see the HotSpot promotions and now this.
A few of the 5/5 prize was not awarded in some of the draws so I think they are using those funds to do this promotion. They force you to buy the powerball tickets so they will cut some loss to provide a SLP ticket.
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Quote: Originally posted by biggwinner on Jun 27, 2014
I have been playing bitcoin dice online lately instead of scratchers. The house edge is only .75% where I play. Much better than scratchers! Also the payouts are instant and taxes are not withheld. I play for a top prize of $6000. If you are technically inclined you might give it a try.
Awesome. Nice to see you've found something good. Can you post some of your "bigg" wins from it?
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Quote: Originally posted by CAScratcher20 on Jun 28, 2014
I think SuperLotto payouts are not too great to begin with as it is a hit or miss game. The 5/5 and the 4/5 + Mega prizes pay about $45-55k (even worse if shared) and $1.5k (many people share this amount)
I played enough SLP during the 6 month streak in which the JP reached $70 million. The most I ever got was 3 out of 5 with no mega or 2 out of 5 with mega for $11.
I think in the handbook, the CALottery is supposed to payout a certain threshold of its income, hence you see the HotSpot promotions and now this.
A few of the 5/5 prize was not awarded in some of the draws so I think they are using those funds to do this promotion. They force you to buy the powerball tickets so they will cut some loss to provide a SLP ticket.
What worries me is that the July RPP shows an SLP ticket with two codes and a $1.00 price. (And no 2nd Chance code, but that's hopefully just an oversight.) Maybe they are making up the extra dollar behind the scenes, I hope you're right, but if so why not say so on the ticket? Could be they don't want to confuse retail clerks now that I think about it. In any event we'll know as the promotion goes on, I suggest y'all keep an eye on the payouts this July.
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Quote: Originally posted by CAScratcher20 on Jun 28, 2014
Awesome. Nice to see you've found something good. Can you post some of your "bigg" wins from it?
No big wins yet. I lost my gambling fund at the slot machines in Vegas so I am taking it slow right now. Sometimes I don't bet at all, I just see what bets other people are making. It is fun to watch the whales bet $200 or $300 at a time. Yesterday someone was making $30 bets and won 3.1 bitcoins twice, which is about $3600 total.
I am not totally done with scratchers, when the new $20 ticket is released I'll probably buy a couple just to try it out. I am also looking forward to the quarterly scratchers pool drawing. Maybe my scratchers investment could still pay off?
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Just a FYI with Bitcoin-based online dice games. Canada recently announced new regulations regarding Bitcoin use. As a result, Canadian online Bitcoin dice sites are shutting down operations as they will not be in compliance with the new laws. While the shutdown may be temporary, they are suggesting customers to withdraw all their coins. I wouldn't be surprised if other countries move forward with similar regulations. Three months ago the IRS announced Bitcoin will be treated as property.
In a nutshell, be VERY careful and do your due diligence regularly as regulations and laws may change quickly with virtual currencies.