Many years ago, in Reno, working at the Nevada Club was my first "visit" with the IRS. Back then, tokes, or tips we made on the tables were ours. No shift split or anything, we split the money at the end of the shift and went home. We were supposed to keep a record of them for the IRS, but rarely did. And, in those days, we did pretty good on tokes.
I received a notice in the mail that I was going to be audited. I hurriedly made up a list of tokes to take down and show them, trying my best to remember when I worked, etc., etc.
I met with them at the appointed time, ushered into an office and confronted with a stern looking IRS agent. I forget his name. I produced my list, he looked over it, then looked over another list he had. "I see here on 8 July, you say you made $6.00 in tips. You were audited that night, and we have reason to believe you made more than that." He tore up my list.
"Well, since you were off that much, that night, we are going to assume that you made .... on an average, and you owe us ........... $ ..... A much larger amount than I had figured. And, I had NO recourse.
I remember a gal that was a dealer at Harolds Club, a fiery Spanish, very attractive, short tempered gal. Story goes she would not go to the IRS office as they requested. They sent an agent to her apartment. He knocked on her door, told her why he was there and what he wanted. She opened the door, and gushed forth with a tirade of obscenities, gestures and comments. They say he left and never bothered her again.
On another occasion at Harolds Club, a high roller was playing 21. He had a large stack of chips in front of him. The IRS entered the club, approached his table, and took the money and chips in front of him .... Quote, Your tax year is closed as of now and we are taking this as a partial payment on your taxes. Harold was so incensed by their actions that he changed checks and would not recognize the ones they had. The IRS had a pile of worthless chips.
One more, another Harolds Dealer, a gal, took a few days off and went to San Francisco. While there, she met, and was interviewed by a reporter, who did an article in their Sunday Supplement, about her job, and HOW MUCH SHE MADE IN TIPS AT HAROLDS..... she exaggerated a bit, but upon her return to Reno she was very unpopular. Reportedly the IRS attempted to use her figures as average for Harolds dealers tokes, or tips. She was very unpopular, I think, finally quite because of that.
