Gambling winnings tax in Maryland

Maryland allows gambling losses only if you itemize on your federal return. Take the standard deduction and it taxes your gross winnings. Whether only 90 percent of your losses count from 2026 is not settled.

Checked against Maryland’s own sources on 2026-09-25.

In short

Each $3,200 personal exemption on your return goes down in steps once your federal AGI is more than $100,000, or $150,000 on a joint, head of household or surviving spouse return. Each step is a cliff, and it reaches every $3,200 exemption on your return.13
If Maryland tax is not withheld from a win of $500 or more, you must pay it with Form PV within 60 days, not when you file.16
If you itemize and your federal adjusted gross income is above $200,000, or $100,000 if you are married filing separately, a win can grow Maryland’s cut to your itemized deductions by up to 7.5 percent of the win. The cut also reduces your gambling losses.14

How Maryland treats gambling losses

Maryland allows the deduction only to filers who itemize on the federal return. Take the federal standard deduction and the offset disappears, so gross winnings are taxed even in a year you finished down.

The two examples below are the same numbers the calculator uses, worked at Maryland rates.

Two examples, worked at 2026 Maryland rates

A single filer with $60,000 of other income who takes the standard deduction on everything except gambling losses.

A losing year

You win $50,000 and lose $52,000, so you finish down $2,000.

Federal: $3,596
Maryland: $387
Total: $3,983

You finished the year down and still owe tax.

Federally you itemize, so your losses offset your winnings, but the 2026 rule caps that deduction at 90 percent and leaves $3,200 taxable. Maryland allows the loss deduction only to filers who itemize federally, which you do. Your Maryland income, after Maryland's standard deduction, or your itemized deductions where you itemize federally and they are larger, and your personal exemption, $3,200 without the win and $1,600 with it, goes from $53,450 without the win to $61,600 with it. The extra $8,150 is taxed at 4.75 percent, which comes to $387.

A winning year

You win $50,000 and lose $10,000, so you finish up $40,000.

Federal: $10,350
Maryland: $2,464
Total: $12,814

Federally you take the $16,100 standard deduction, which is worth more than itemizing, so your gambling losses do not reduce your federal tax at all. Maryland allows the loss deduction only to filers who itemize federally, and you do not. Your Maryland income, after Maryland's standard deduction, or your itemized deductions where you itemize federally and they are larger, and your personal exemption, $3,200 without the win and $1,600 with it, goes from $53,450 without the win to $105,050 with it. The extra $51,600 is taxed at graduated rates, which comes to $2,464.

Maryland income tax rates, 2026

8, 9, 10

Single filer thresholds. Married filing jointly and head of household use different bands. Married filing separately uses the single bands.

Taxable income	Rate
$0 to $1,000	2 percent
$1,000 to $2,000	3 percent
$2,000 to $3,000	4 percent
$3,000 to $100,000	4.75 percent
$100,000 to $125,000	5 percent
$125,000 to $150,000	5.25 percent
$150,000 to $250,000	5.5 percent
$250,000 to $500,000	5.75 percent
$500,000 to $1,000,000	6.25 percent
$1,000,000 and above	6.5 percent

The calculator also applies what this table leaves out: a personal exemption that falls as income rises, taken before the table, a cut to itemized deductions above a line of income, taken before the table and the federal overall limit on itemized deductions at the top federal bracket, taken before the table.

Withholding on winnings

Maryland withholds 9.5 percent on winnings above $5,000.

The Comptroller’s guide applies this to lottery and other gambling winnings, and to pari-mutuel winnings only where the payout is also at least 300 times the stake.

Withholding is a credit against the bill, not the bill itself. It does not settle what you owe.

Local tax

Every Maryland county and Baltimore City levies a mandatory income tax on Maryland taxable income, from 2.25 percent in Worcester to 3.30 percent in Dorchester and Kent for 2026. At 3.30 percent it adds about 70 percent on top of the state tax in the 4.75 percent bracket.

The federal 90 percent loss limit in Maryland

7, 12, 18

From tax year 2026 the federal deduction for gambling losses is cut to 90 percent of what you lost, and never more than what you won. Public Law 119-21 did it, at section 70114(a), by rewriting 26 U.S.C. 165(d).

Maryland has not said whether the federal 90 percent limit applies. Its own law measures the state deduction by the federal figure, so the limit can arrive without Maryland doing anything. Maryland follows the federal code as it changes.

Our estimate assumes the limit applies, which gives the higher tax. The calculator also shows the tax if the limit does not apply. We would rather tell you the number could be lower than let you plan around one that turns out to be too low.

If you do not live in Maryland

A nonresident pays a Special Nonresident tax of 2.25 percent in place of the county tax. Gambling withholding for a nonresident is 8.75 percent rather than 9.50 percent.

The calculator works the bill for somebody who lives in Maryland. It does not apportion income between states, so a nonresident return is not what the figure above describes.

More about Maryland

The personal exemption

Maryland’s personal exemption is $3,200. Once your federal AGI is more than the line for your return, it falls in steps:13

Each exemption falls to	Federal AGI more than, other returns	Federal AGI more than, joint, head of household or surviving spouse
$1,600	$100,000	$150,000
$800	$125,000	$175,000
Nothing	$150,000	$200,000

Each step is a cliff, and it reaches every $3,200 exemption on your return.13

If you are 65 or older or blind, you get an extra $1,000 exemption, and the income lines do not reduce it.13

Paying tax on a win

If you win $500 or more and Maryland tax is not withheld, you must pay with Form PV within 60 days. Do not wait until you file.16

If you itemize

From tax year 2025 Maryland cuts your itemized deductions by 7.5 percent of your federal adjusted gross income above $200,000, or $100,000 if you are married filing separately. Your gross winnings count in that income, so a win can grow the cut by up to 7.5 percent of the win. The cut comes after every other limit and also reduces your gambling losses.14

Maryland law (Tax-General 10-218(b)(3)) takes out state income tax after subtracting a pro rata portion of the federal overall limit on itemized deductions. The law does not define pro rata.

The standard deduction

Since 2025 Maryland’s standard deduction is a flat $3,350, or $6,700 on a joint, head of household or surviving spouse return.9

Tax-General 10-217(c) indexes the standard deduction from 2026, but the Comptroller’s 2026 estimated tax worksheet still prints $3,350 and $6,700. The Comptroller’s 2026 withholding guide uses an indexed $3,400 for payroll and gives no joint figure, so the 2026 amount for the return is not settled.5, 11, 6

County tax

Anne Arundel and Frederick counties use graduated county rates, with different brackets for each filing status.10

About this estimate

The calculator includes the extra $1,000 exemption for each person 65 or older, but not the one for blindness. It also includes the senior tax credit of $1,000, or $1,750 for a couple both 65 or older or a head of household, which ends above federal AGI of $100,000, or $150,000 joint or head of household. A win that takes you over the line costs the whole credit. In a year when the September revenue estimate falls more than 3.75 percent below March, the law cuts the credit to $500 or $875 from $50,000 or $100,000 of federal AGI. The September 2026 estimate rose, so the full credit applies for 2026.4, 1, 2, 3

For 2026 the calculator uses the worksheet’s $3,350 and $6,700, not the $3,400 of the payroll withholding guide. If the 2026 figure is indexed, a losing year can cost a little more than shown.5, 6, 11

Maryland’s pro rata rule for state income tax in itemized deductions makes your deduction a little larger than the calculator shows, by under $100 of tax.

Sources

Every figure above traces to a primary source: a statute, an administrative code, a state agency page, or official form instructions.

1. 2025 Resident Booklet, Form 502CR Part M: the senior tax credit of $1,000, or $1,750 joint, surviving spouse or head of household, at federal AGI up to $100,000 or $150,000 (checked 2026-10-12)
2. Tax-General 10-754: the senior tax credit, (b) its amounts and lines, (c) the cut after a September revenue estimate more than 3.75 percent below March (checked 2026-10-12)
3. Board of Revenue Estimates, September 2026 report, Table 4: fiscal 2027 General Fund of $27,441,220 thousand against the current estimate of $27,121,303 thousand, so the 10-754(c) cut does not apply for 2026 (checked 2026-10-12)
4. Tax-General 10-211(b)(3): an additional $1,000 exemption for an individual at least 65 on the last day of the taxable year, not limited by 10-211(c) (checked 2026-10-12)
5. Md. Code, Tax-General 10-217 and 10-218: the flat standard deduction, which any filer may elect, and itemizing only for a federal itemizer (checked 2026-09-25)
6. 2026 payment voucher worksheet for estimated tax, standard deductions of $3,350 and $6,700 (checked 2026-09-25)
7. Md. Code, Tax-General 10-218(b), the itemized deduction is the sum of the federal itemized deductions as limited and reduced under the Internal Revenue Code, less state income tax and easement gifts (checked 2026-10-01)
8. Md. Tax-General 10-105, state income tax rates (checked 2026-09-11)
9. Maryland Resident Booklet (2025), rate schedules, itemized deduction rules, local rate chart (checked 2026-09-11)
10. Maryland state and local withholding information (2026) (checked 2026-09-11)
11. Maryland withholding guide (2026), gambling winnings in excess of $5,000, and the payroll standard deduction of $3,400 (checked 2026-10-11)
12. Md. Tax-General 1-101(k), Internal Revenue Code means Title 26 (checked 2026-09-11)
13. Md. Code, Tax-General 10-211(a)(2) and (c), a spouse on a separate return, and the exemption reduced by federal adjusted gross income (checked 2026-09-25)
14. Md. Code, Tax-General 10-218(c), itemized deductions cut by 7.5 percent of federal adjusted gross income over the applicable amount (checked 2026-09-25)
15. 2026 Maryland Payment Voucher Worksheet, line 6, personal exemptions by FAGI (checked 2026-09-25)
16. 2026 Maryland Payment Voucher Worksheet, Form PV payment within 60 days of $500 or more of prizes with no Maryland withholding (checked 2026-10-06)
17. Md. Code, Tax-General 10-218(b)(1): federal itemized deductions "limited and reduced as required under the Internal Revenue Code", which from 2026 includes the federal overall limit on itemized deductions, and 10-218(c)(4) applies the Maryland cut after it (checked 2026-10-01)

The federal rule, for the parts of this page that rest on it

18. Public Law 119-21 section 70114(a), which rewrote 26 U.S.C. 165(d) on wagering losses from tax year 2026 and sets out its text (checked 2026-10-18)