I have a few friends who have been doing extremely well with sports betting lately, making five figures in profit over the past couple of months.
They've told me they follow a strategy where they keep individual wins below $5,000 and withdrawals below $1,000 because they believe it prevents sportsbooks from issuing a W-2G. Don't quote me on the exact thresholds, but that's roughly what they've explained to me.
Because of this, they're planning on not reporting any of their gambling winnings when tax season comes around.
They've been on a pretty crazy winning streak lately, and I've genuinely been thinking about copying some of their bets. But the tax situation has me curious about how risky what they're doing actually is.
If someone makes $50k-100k+ in annual gambling profits without reporting any of it, how likely is the IRS to actually catch that? Do sportsbooks still report gambling activity even if no W-2G gets issued?
I'm especially curious whether this is something the IRS realistically catches and pursues, or whether people sometimes get away with it for years before anything happens.
Would love to hear from CPAs, tax professionals, or anyone with firsthand experience dealing with gambling taxes and IRS audits.
I'm asking because I've considered copying some of their bets, but I want to understand the tax obligations before getting involved. I'm not looking for ways to avoid paying taxes.