I was at a local casino last night and cashed out $3000.00 in chips. They asked for a players card and I just play rated there anyway but I asked what if I don't have a card. The guy said they would ask for I.D. and I asked why. He said that it was so they could keep track of chip movement.... that don't make sense to me so I'm wondering wear the real reason for that is. Also maybe should I just cash the chips in at a couple different times in smaller amounts?
Thanks
The government requires a Currency Transaction Report (CTR) for transactions of $10,000 or more, in cash, in a day:
"What to file. A casino must file Form 103 foreach transaction involving either currency received (Cash In) or currency disbursed (Cash Out)of more than $10,000 in a gaming day. A gamingday is the normal business day of the casino bywhich it keeps its books and records for business,accounting, and tax purposes. Multipletransactions must be treated as a single transactionif the casino has knowledge that: (a) they are madeby or on behalf of the same person, and (b) theyresult in either Cash In or Cash Out by the casinototaling more than $10,000 during any one gaming day.Reportable transactions may occur at a casino cage,gaming table, and/or slot machine/video lottery terminal."
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/fin103_ctrc.pdf
The way I understand this is that they only have to fill out the form if $10,000 in cash changes hands. Chip transactions, such as winning or losing $10,000 in chips at a table without buying or cashing in chips, do not trigger the reporting requirement.
Casinos are also required to report suspicious transactions on a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). This is used if they think you're buying in with drug money, evading taxes, etc. I'm not aware of any requirement to check ID or fill out any forms for a non-suspicious transaction of $3000. This tends to be a casino policy at many places, and many will inaccurately claim that there is a government requirement to check ID, but I'm not aware of one. I believe it is simply casino policy.
You should be aware that CTRs are, generally speaking, not a big deal. Millions of these are generated, and I recall hearing they had rented an old airplane hanger to store them at one point. SARs, are a big deal. They can definitely trigger criminal, or IRS investigations. Don't look like a criminal. I don't care if you think it's a good "act". Lawyers and accountants are expensive, even if you actually didn't do anything illegal.
Another thing to be aware of is "structuring". This is when you break up a $10,000+ transaction into smaller chunks to avoid CTR reporting. This is considered a crime, and they have been pretty aggressive at seizing money under this statute. My understanding is that there does not have to be an underlying criminal motive, such as avoiding taxes. The only "criminal" motive required is trying to avoid triggering the form. In fact, there are horror stories of innocent people having their life savings seized under civil forfeiture simply for having a lot of small cash transactions. These include small grocery stores that just deposited their proceeds every day, and it rarely added up to $10,000, so their money got stolen. It's not even clear these people were trying to avoid reporting, it was simply assumed. Be careful. Get to know your banker.
The Cash Cow.
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