Tax Information and How Your Winnings Will Be Credited (Bingo)

Last Modified: Sep 26, 2019 @ 11:15 am

Your winnings​ will be credited, ever wondered how exactly?

Online bingo itself is a very lucrative market for both its networkers and users, brandishing more than thousands of monthly players and earning them a satisfactory level of revenue and earnings. In the matter of traditional bingo, the usual way of earning would be guaranteed in the form of cash, ranging from levels of $50 to extravagant amounts as great as $1 million as well as bingo bonuses and winnings from free spins, depending on the type of bingo played as well as the halls played in. Supplementary prizes could include luxury items such as cars or unique vacation offers customised for the winner. But, as with every positive outcome is a conditional adjunction that follows, and bingo, regardless of it being played online or in the traditional manner, remains no different to the rules of nature.

Bingo branches off from the gambling industry and remains analogous to the fundamental rules and requirement of the game of gambling. Despite a prolonged debate over which category of game bingo should fall under by the Royal Commission Report for it to act in accordance with its respective law, bingo has been set in the middle between the game of gambling and the game of lottery, both following the prerequisites of gambling laws and regulations. Authorities, however, have urged bingo users to play responsibly and not spend hefty amounts so as to parallelise the game with that of gambling. As much as online bingo has been able to circumvent the strict laws of gambling, which also includes the banning of it being played online, it has not been so lucky in the sector of the provision of taxes over its users’ winnings as well as the revenue collected by online bingo networkers.

But before the antagonising process of tax collection and imposition is delved into, let’s first discuss the process and policies of bingo sites over its user’s winnings and how their winning will be credited:

The Process by which Your Winnings Will Be Credited

There are hundreds of online bingo sites currently spread out in the market for the online gaming industry, and each new bingo site offers its varied and customised policies to both benefit its player as well as to help them navigate through the process of earning bingo bonuses and winnings easily. Take for example, Anytime Bingo, a site that prides itself to be the ‘hottest online bingo site around’.

Anytime Bingo offers a range of prizes to its winners, with players being able to join in on a plethora of available options of games that can be played, from the likes of 75-Ball, 90-ball or even free daily bingo. Prize offers vary but are extremely favourable, with the site even providing complementary bonuses its players upon first joining up. This even includes the chance to win special Amazon vouchers and 500 free bonus spins to get even more and better winnings.

Depositors only would be able to avail from the given welcome bonus, where, upon the first deposit, users will be provided with a free bingo spin of the ‘Mega Wheel’. However, prizes on the ‘Mega Wheel’ liable to constant changes and the user has to agree to the terms and conditions which dictate that the game is one of chance and does not assure the possibility of earning a definite prize. Furthermore, the maximum bonus will be credited after a bonus win of £8 per free bingo spin, yet it is not automatically credited after a deposit. To claim your respective bonus earning, please contact the site’s customer support.

In addition to the winnings from free spins provided by the site on their welcome bonus offers and the winnings derived from games bonuses, users can also receive Amazon vouchers which will be emailed to the players’ registered addresses within a time range of 7 days. Therefore, users are to be wary of any inaccuracy included in their email addresses for otherwise, their respective winning will not be credited to their accounts.

The site has a strict wagering policy on all bonus earned from games and spins, with the exception of terms and conditions present in certain games or promotions. The player has to agree to wager about 65x the sum of bonus won added with any other continuing wagering requirements before the earnings can be cashed out by the user. If meeting the wagering requirement is not followed as instructed, the user will receive a penalty upon which they will be forced to forfeit all their existing bonus funds, free spins and Mega Wheel spins, which eventually results in them earning a nil amount of prize money. If the wagering requirements are confidently adhered by, all winnings will be credited to the player’s real money balance in 30 days. However, T&Cs apply.

Additionally, Anytime bingo emphasises on using real money balance to wager before receiving bonus funds. Their policy also dictates that the player can only use their bingo bonus when they do not have sufficient enough money balance to place a wager. Moreover, they have specified games that do not require meeting the wagering requirements, which include Blackjack, Roulette and any other variants of the casino adaptations or the progressive jackpot slot. It is to be acknowledged, however, that the company behind Anytime bingo does have the right to change their policies any time, but this will not alter the existing bonus or offers predisposed to its players.

For further information on how winnings will be credited, the company retains a rigorous scheme of conversion on bonuses, specifically for players who have not met the wagering requirements. Players who have not deposited a wagering balance will only have a maximum of £50 transferred to their real money balance account, and any increments from that will be permanently deleted, regardless how large the winnings are. Winnings will also be credited to the balance in which a wager was deposited. This signifies that if a player wagers 50% with real money and another 50% with bonus funds, a player’s earnings will then be credited to tally with the proportion of the initial wagering balance. Thus, only real money is required to play the game of bingo while the company also maintains the ability to alter the wagering requirements whenever they wish to.

The Legality that Follows

Online bingo sites are predominantly operated by the 888 Group Holdings Plc in the UK, which is licensed and regulated by the Great Britain Gambling Commission. While the entirety of the online bingo community that operates overseas, outside of the UK, is under the Virtual Global Digital Services Limited, the Virtual Global Digital Services Limited is regulated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner under the laws of Gibraltar. The authority that handles the operations of online bingo has encouraged the game to be played responsibly and supports GamCare.

For bingo players situated outside of the UK, particularly in the USA, bingo games hold many restrictions over the income transferred and the winnings that are credited on the players’ accounts due to bingo games having to maintain the laws of the IRS, which is abbreviated for the Internal Revenue Service. This means that regardless whether the winnings which are credited to your account are derived from bonuses, free spins or even come in the form of Amazon vouchers or cars and the lot, US natives are inclined to pay a certain amount of tax on their income due to bingo falling under the category of gambling.

According to the US law, any winnings from any sort of gambling game are accorded to a particular taxable amount that is to be received by tax authorities. If the winnings are particularly large, the earner has to fill out their respective IRS form, which, for bingo, is the IRS Form W-2G. This is the form that supplements the federal income tax return at the end of the year by the respective taxing citizen.

It is sufficiently impressed upon that bingo is a hugely profitable game for those who know how to earn the right spot, but that also means winners are disposed with heavy taxations. The initial tax bracket for online bingo players begin from earnings of $1,200 to more, as such huge numbers are instantly reported to the IRS while for the traditional bingo which is played in casinos and bingo halls, any amount of $5000 is in need for reporting and susceptible to taxation.

Taxation, in itself, is quite high. The general level of tax that is imposed on bingo earnings are about 25% of the amount won while in some states, there is an estimated or, otherwise known as, backup tax that is imposed, which starts at 28% on winnings. Therefore, even if luck does favour you in your game of bingo, there are authorities in place who do not, but even with that, bingo players will still be left with astronomical earnings and winnings at the end of the day, all received with no sweat at all.