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Unlike most countries the United States taxes gambling winnings, but the allowances for loses can be almost impossible to claim. The person that said, "The IRS gets theirs first," must have been a gambler. As it presently stands, the taxpayer must claim all gambling winnings as income, but only gambling losses, up the amount of winnings, claimed as income. If your losses are greater than your wins, you are out of luck. They cannot be claimed as a negative income. Additionally each loss must be well documented and can only be taken off as an itemized deduction and even then may be challenged and disallowed by the IRS. If you make your score early in the year, you could be penalized for not withholding the proper amount.

For the foreign visitor, you have just been screwed. You will lose about 30% of the win. With good prior preparation you might be able to recoup some of the tax money but most of it will go to the government. You can't just take the money and run because the casinos are required to withhold a percentage of big payouts on all visitors and you can only by filing a U.S Tax return can you hope to get some of that money back.

In both cases you can get some of the taxes back if you have kept the proper records. This book tells you records are required and how to keep them. So, Don't be surprised and disappointed when you hit that progressive slot machine for $1,000,000 and the Casino keeps $300,000 for the IRS. Read this book.

GL
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