This book by Jean Scott, one of the writers for Las Vegas Advisor newsletter, has a summary of tax regulations and record keeping requirements if you plan to report any gambling income or try to write off any losses on your federal return.

There are many fuzzy aspects of the law, and the record keeping is not well defined, but if you've never read up on the subject before and want to keep out of trouble with the IRS you should read this paperback.

Did you know:

• You can only deduct losses to the extent of wins you report to the IRS?

• The recommended way to keep track of games and losses is by a hand written log that totals up each gaming session you have?

• If you ask the casino to deduct income tax from a hand pay that results in a W2, the IRS treats that tax payment as if it were made uniformly over the tax year? This was a surprise to me, and can be used to catch up on Estimated Tax payments and avoid a penalty if you are near the end of the year.

I found the book was useful to read, but don't need to keep it for reference. How about a round robin of readers for the book? The last reader can submit it to the Club reference library for others to check out and refer to. If you want a copy to keep, it sells for $25 from LVA ($20 if you are a subscriber).

The first 10 who email me their name and address and agree to pay the postage to forward it to the next person, will participate. The paperback letter-size book has about 60 pages and will ship for about $2.