Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2011

bubble113

August

ferf1223 wrote: »

On arriving in the UK with currency equal to 10K EUR

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriving/declaring-cash.htm

As for the tax situation while in Vegas...if you win more than $1199 on a slot machine you'll be subject to 30% withholding tax...most of the bigger casinos will do the paperwork for you to get you an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, at which point they can pay you the full amount...some casinos won't do this for you, and you'll have to claim the tax back (or use an agency that does this for people)...bubble posted not long ago about her mum getting paid less the 30% withholding at SouthPoint (I think it was SouthPoint).

I'm not sure you could easily open a US bank account if you wanted to - in general they require a Social Security Number (though an ITIN might suffice - not sure)...at the very least I think without being a resident it would be a struggle.

If it was such a high value and the exchange rate was such that sitting on it for awhile made sense, I would think you could take payment via a cheque and open a USD account in the UK (I know Citibank do one, not sure about others).

Hi

Yes it was Southpoint, she won $1000 on a promotion they were running....names out of hat kinda of thing and they took 30%. I enquired by email to the tax office about claming back and surprisingly enough involves alot of different form filling which I can do December/January time. I could go via an agency but will have to pay so will have a to decide if its worth it to claim back $300.

I won $1600 on a slot machine earlier on in the year at PH and they did all the form filling so got it all :T

I usually don't have an issue with the winning/tax situation as don't normally win!

ferf1223

March

bubble113 wrote: »

Hi

Yes it was Southpoint, she won $1000 on a promotion they were running....names out of hat kinda of thing and they took 30%.

It's interesting that they taxed below the normal $1199 limit (though I know that limit is specific to slots, different limits apply to other types of gambling)- especially since it was free (I think?) to enter the drawing - so it wasn't actually gambling as such?

I wonder if they would have done the paperwork for a slot win, but not this...must have taken a bit of the shine off it.

ferf1223

March

We took a video of our room at Bally's to add to our collection, if anyone is interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IPHzKzWjUQ

It was a North Tower room - we asked nicely at check-in if there were any complimentary upgrades available (we had booked a south tower room) and she checked, wrote down some room numbers, mentioned a junior suite, went away to talk to someone...came back...said something about an l-shaped room normally reserved for diamond members so we were really excited (tipped $20)...but as far as we could tell it was a standard North Tower room except it had a small coffee maker (no use, we'd already bought a proper 12-cup pot) and a fridge (and we're not sure if the fridge was even meant to be there - we loaded it up immediately just in case they might take it away)...still, it was an upgrade to what we booked and the fridge was worth the $20 tip alone.

We still like Bally's, though have been spoiled by nicer rooms other places recently so it seemed a little bit blah...the bedding isn't nearly as nice as some other places (including TI where we stayed 2-nights this trip) - the sheets were a bit scratchy and the pillows were not good...but the room is so big, it really is what makes the difference for us in terms of standard rooms...having had a big room for quite a few trips, it's quite hard to be happy in a smaller standard room elsewhere. And yeah, no flat-screen TV...this is hugely upsetting to some, it doesn't bother us...if I had to guess, one of the reasons they haven't upgraded the tellies is they would also have to replace the armoire-sort of thing, since the telly currently sits inside it...which would probably mean replacing all the furniture to avoid the mismatching on the furniture.

We're looking at February for our next trip, as it happens Bally's currently shows no availability one night in the middle of our trip so no availability for the dates we are looking to reserve...think we will likely end up at Paris, or may go ahead and spring a bit for Caesars in the hope that staying there brings the Caesars comps back.

photome

August

Thanks for the video ferf,(commentary is missing) thinking of trying Ballys in march..dont like the old CRT tv though:D.

You look a long way from the strip in that tower, which is the one closer and how do the other tower rooms compare? i know you have been asked that many times, but as I have never really thought of staying there before I have only glossed over the posts.

Wife wants to go back to the Wynn, I want to stay somewhere more central so IP is also an option:D just dont tell her

ferf1223

March

Ha - I don't do commentary...all our videos are pretty much silent, I would feel too silly talking, it's enough effort to avoid all the stupid mirrors!

One of the complaints people have about Bally's is it is set back from the strip more than other hotels.

As for the tower, it's hard to explain and hopefully I won't get sued for stealing a very small part of a map...



This time our room this time was more or less where the Bally's Las Vegas knife and fork are. In our video - the view out the window - the building with the horizontal blue stripes is the south tower.

Red circle = south tower, mostly not renovated in ages, some have really great views...haven't stayed in the ST for years and years...the one time we did the room was very, very shabby but clean and big and we had a view of the Paris balloon and part of the Bellagio fountains. I think Luci had a junior suite in the ST. Closer to the main entrance (so the strip) and valet.

Blue circle = north tower, more recently renovated - but has 3 wings as you see...so views can vary dramatically depending on which wing you are in...never had a great view in this tower but have had some decent views. Closer to the pool - you can take the lift to pool level and avoid walking through the casino too (this also means it's slightly quicker to get to Ellis Island out the back ). Slightly closer to the walkway to Paris and therefore self-park, but not dramtically. We prefer this tower due to the rooms having been renovated more recently, mostly.

There's a review on TA from June with photos of a south tower room which gives an idea what they are mostly like...I keep hearing some have been refurbished though.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g45963-d121312-r112318606-Bally_s_Las_Vegas_Hotel_Casino-Las_Vegas_Nevada.html

bubble113

August

ferf1223 wrote: »

It's interesting that they taxed below the normal $1199 limit (though I know that limit is specific to slots, different limits apply to other types of gambling)- especially since it was free (I think?) to enter the drawing - so it wasn't actually gambling as such?

I wonder if they would have done the paperwork for a slot win, but not this...must have taken a bit of the shine off it.

It was free to enter, we checked the website the day after the draw and saw her name (hers was the second name on the list,first won $10000!) we were really excited going to collect and then very disappointed about the tax but had to change our thinking that it was still $700 we wouldn't have had!

sweenytodd

October

I do like to leave things to the last minute !! flying out on weds 19th with thomas cook and getting married on sunday the 23rd bout 6ish, with photo,s being taken at various locations on the strip and should be finished by bout 9ish, trouble is we hav,nt got anything booked for after that !! looking for something along the lines of dinner and/or a show, there will only be 3 of us, any ideas at all would be much apreciated

photome

August

Ferf..thanks for the in depth info re Ballys.

ferf1223

March

just booked for February...hubby had been playing around on AA's site and determined we had enough miles for business/first returns and while I'm sure that some would argue that there's a better way to use miles, we jumped on that before something changed...so for about £400 all in (I had to pay to transfer some miles to my hubby's account) we think that's an awfully good deal...we checked and buying the flights without using miles would have cost us £7k!

And now we get to test out the getting to Vegas late thing as we won't arrive until almost 8pm as of the routings available for the amount of miles we had available it was the one most suited to us.

I feel I need to again thank duchy and stoneman for their help with the Platinum Challenge as were it not for that, and the extra miles I earned while platinum, we wouldn't have had enough miles to do it.

Spursman180

March

Just chilling out after a good day at Ascot yesterday, and a fairly long evening that followed, managed to avoid the desperate Kebab at the end.

Just following the whole tax and ITIN thingy. I've spoken with the IRS at the US embassy in Grosvenor square. Asked some of the questions raised and a few more about property.

Until you have a claim against an amount witheld you can't have an ITIN, if the casino won't do it for you, you need to wait to apply at the IRS section of the embassy once you are home. Casinos must give you a specific type of receipt for the withholding, that's your evidence. It is beaureaucratic but that's the way of things. The ITIN number lasts for life.

Foreign property owners who let out property are also subject to withholding of 30%, this is held agaainst US taxes on local, state and federal taxes, this is where an accountant usually gets involved to prepare the papers, what I don't know is if the accountant charges are deductible (didn't get that far).

Had tried to set up a bank account in Vegas but couldn't due to being a foreigner with no entitlements in US, SSN, residency etc. I did get a call from BOA after the proverbial hit the fan on the economy offering me one as the rules had changed and I think they were in the deep do do.

One word of caution on UK based dollar accounts, if they are American banks they will reject deposits being made from gambling sites, Pokerstars, Ladbrokes etc. Even though they are legal here they won't accept them because of the US legislation which obviously doesn't apply here. I know a lot of people who have tried to transfer their $dollar winnings straight into a dollar account to avoid exchange fees, shame because it would be a nice Vegas piggybank. Stopped trying to be smart on Vegas and money seems to be blocked each which way.

poster mentioned landing with in excess of 10k in euros, in addition you need to declare leaving Vegas with more than $10k, no problems on having more than $10k, I don't know if there are any potential tax issues, but sneaking it through could have it all confiscated. Customs here is slightly different.