Questions about Club Grazie (Venetian/Palazzo)
 

Hi all!

Vegas noob here. Please forgive me if these are questions with obvious answers.

1) Is there a way to see details of how much money I put in their slots? I was hoping to use this data for tax purposes. They know to the penny how much went in :) If I don't use this info for tax purposes (losses, mainly :( ), how will the IRS know if I'm lying or not?

2) For the lowest tier (Grazie), they give you 5 points for every $1 resort charge. That sounds like it's JUST for extra stuff, like spa visits, and not for the cost of the room itself. But I seem to have a much larger number of points than I expected. Does it include the room too? What else can you charge to your room? I didn't think the restaurants could bill to the room.

3) The club grazie website references "grazie gifts", and says it's a " year-end Holiday Shopping Extravaganza". I joined the program this year (Oct or Nov), and I didn't get any info about this. In fact, I see no information on their website that references what the points can be used for (even when logged in). Am I missing something? Or is this info not visible to people unless they have enough points?

Thanks in advance for your help.

1) The casino will give you a win/loss statement on written request. Call them to see how to request it. However, the IRS requires that you keep a contemporaneous diary of all your gambling sessions in order to deduct losses. So if you're audited they may not allow the losses based solely on a casion win/loss statement.

2) Beats me

3) It was in November.

1) QuietLion is correct.

2) They just started the Grazie Points for everything charged to your room so that means restaurants, spa, etc.

3) Grazie Point shopping event is held towards the end of November annually. You'll get an invite in the mail and in your online account sometime in October. You probably signed up after the cutoff date thus you did not receive an invite. The invite via mail will provide more details and a small partial listing of what you can redeem points for. It's basically a bunch of stuff that have high point values assigned to it (e.g. plasma TVs, bikes, etc.). They'll ship it to your home usually for free.

I didn't know I could request that. Thanks!

I'm pretty sure that the room charge must also qualify for Grazie points. It's either that, or I have a serious gambling problem! :) I have 6k in Grazie points from a 4 day stay, and I think I only gambled there 2 days.

When I get my statement, I'll follow up here.

Guess I should've read the IRS rules on losses before I went :(

Thanks all for the info.

Unless you have a documented win over $1200 (they will give you a w-2g on the spot), then there's no need to even mention gambling on your tax return. If you have a w-2g, then request the win/loss statement anyway and deduct the losses. If you're worried about getting audited, then get yourself a small notepad and do your best to re-create the weekend with approximate times gambling on slots/tables/vp etc and the approximate wins/losses. Keep this in your tax records in case of an audit. I'm not a lawyer or accountant so take it for what it's worth. Unless you have 5 or 6 figure wins/losses, you probably won't even be a blip on the radar w/ the IRS.

I do have a documented win, but it wasn't too far above that limit. Off the top of my head, I think my losses are pretty close to the win. I'm not going to fake a diary at this point though :) If I get audited, I will provide the documentation I have. If that's not good enough, then I guess it will suck to be me! :eek: ;)

I agree with you...since I'm not a big winner, I doubt that I have anything to worry about.

Note that unless you itemize, you can't deduct your losses.

(Putting CPA hat on...)

And more importantly, you can only deduct to offset your reported winnings. :eek:

Itemizing and claiming this deduction without having reported income in excess of your W-2 is an audit flag.

Cheers,
goheelswks

Yes, as mentioned above, I do have a reported/documented win. But thank you for the reminder. I just want the record of losses to offset this :)

As far as the original question, they have a form on their website that you have to mail or fax back to them. It asks for your SSN, but I only provided the last 4. They shouldn't need that info to produce records from their own system.

I got my win-loss statement today.

It very clearly states what my slot coin-in was, and that maps almost exactly to my total number of Grazie points.

I find that impossible to believe, especially since my points then would NOT reflect any of the extra services I mentioned (like spa visits).

If it is true, then I have what I would consider a serious gambling problem :eek:

I'm going to follow up w/ the Club Grazie folks when I'm there next week (yeah, I know how odd that sounds after the previous line :D).

If you charge things to your room and end up getting comped, do you still keep the points?

You dont get points for comped charges, at least I didnt.

What points do you earn playing poker? My casino points are exactly equal to my slots rewards points (and at one time were negative). I play some roulette (probably 20 hours this year at $20/bet) and have played 100 hours of 4/8 holdem. Does that activity not count? If not why am I bothering to give them my card?

Spent some time at Venetian/Palazzo, under 4 night comp offer, with $500 match play, and $100 credit up front. Checked in, was told to go to VIP check in services, which was nice in that they've got a small lounge with snacks, cookies, etc. They will also take care of any show/spa arrangements for you.

Played mostly baccarat, for about 8 hours of play, just over $400 average bet. In the end got comped limo to and from the airport, as well as all food/beverage charges to the room (tips not included). VIP access also gives free WiFi/internet access. I'm sure my losses may have factored into the comps.

We'll see how this affects future offers. This, on a recent trip history of nearly 15 hours at $525 average bet.


I would note the following:
- minimum bets at the midi bac tables were $300, most being $500, with tables often being full
- minimum bets at midi bac at Wynn and Encore were $100
- minimum bets at midi bac at Bellagio were $100.

This weekend, I saw lots of $10 craps tables at Bellagio. Don't recall what they were at Wynn/Encore.

Had terrific luck at Bellagio and Encore baccarat, for what it's worth. New Red Card members got $10 in slots credit.

If you pay for your room (non-comped) does this also get included in your Grazie points?