Gambling winnings tax in Rhode Island

Rhode Island taxes your gross gambling winnings and allows no deduction for losses, so a losing year can still produce a state tax bill.

Checked against Rhode Island’s own sources on 2026-09-11.

In short

If you are at full retirement age, a win can cost you Rhode Island’s exemption for your Social Security. For 2025 the exemption applies only while your federal AGI is under $107,000, or $133,750 if you file jointly.5, 4
At high incomes a win can shrink your standard deduction and exemptions. For 2026 they start to fall once your modified federal AGI is more than $261,000, and they are gone above $290,800.
Rhode Island withholds from your gambling winnings when federal withholding applies. It has no withholding threshold of its own.
Rhode Island’s casinos in Lincoln and Tiverton offer state-operated video lottery games and casino gaming, table games included. State law has Rhode Island tax withheld from their winnings when federal withholding applies, under the federal W-2G withholding rules.13, 14, 15, 16

How Rhode Island treats gambling losses

6, 8

Rhode Island does not let a casual gambler offset winnings with losses at all, so how you file federally makes no difference to the state figure.

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

Two examples, worked at 2026 Rhode Island 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
Rhode Island: $1,990
Total: $5,586

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. Rhode Island starts from your federal income and allows no deduction for gambling losses, so the full $50,000 is taxed at graduated rates, less $165 because your standard deduction and personal exemptions come off your income first, so the win starts lower in the rate bands, which comes to $1,990.

A winning year

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

Federal: $10,350
Rhode Island: $1,990
Total: $12,340

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. Rhode Island starts from your federal income and allows no deduction for gambling losses, so the full $50,000 is taxed at graduated rates, less $165 because your standard deduction and personal exemptions come off your income first, so the win starts lower in the rate bands, which comes to $1,990.

Rhode Island income tax rates, 2026

Taxable income	Rate
$0 to $82,050	3.75 percent
$82,050 to $186,450	4.75 percent
$186,450 and above	5.99 percent

The calculator also applies what this table leaves out: the standard deduction and personal exemptions, which fall at higher incomes, taken before the table.

Withholding on winnings

3, 13

Rhode Island requires withholding, and the rate could not be confirmed from a primary source. The payout that triggers it depends on the wager, and the lowest trigger is $5,000. The rules in the state's sources:

the state lottery: above $5,000, measured after the stake comes off (Rhode Island states no figure of its own and follows federal withholding).
pari-mutuel wagering and other wagers: above $5,000, and only where the payout is at least 300 times the stake, measured after the stake comes off.
slot machines, keno and bingo: nothing is withheld under the federal W-2G withholding rules, which Rhode Island casino withholding follows.

These sources give no rule for other kinds of bet, so do not assume tax was withheld on one.

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

The federal 90 percent loss limit in Rhode Island

8, 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).

Rhode Island allows no loss deduction at all, so the federal limit changes your federal bill and not your Rhode Island bill.

Rhode Island follows the federal code as it changes. The paragraph above says what this means for the federal 90 percent limit.

If you do not live in Rhode Island

Rhode Island lottery and pari-mutuel winnings are Rhode Island source income for a nonresident. A nonresident with Rhode Island withholding and no liability must still file to get a refund.

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

More about Rhode Island

Withholding

Rhode Island has no withholding threshold of its own. It withholds when federal withholding applies under 26 C.F.R. 31.3402(q)-1.

In 2019 the Division of Taxation said the Division of State Lottery uses 5.99 percent for Rhode Island withholding.17

Neither the withholding statute nor the regulation prints a number for the rate.13, 3

Rhode Island’s casinos in Lincoln and Tiverton offer state-operated video lottery games and casino gaming, table games included. State law has Rhode Island tax withheld from their winnings when federal withholding applies, under the federal W-2G withholding rules.13, 14, 15, 16

If you get Social Security

For 2025, if you are at full retirement age, Rhode Island exempts your Social Security only while your federal AGI is under $107,000, or $133,750 if you file jointly.5, 4

Rhode Island has not published the 2026 lines yet.

Rates, standard deduction and exemptions

Rhode Island uses one rate table for every filing status.7

For 2026 the Rhode Island standard deduction is $11,200 single, $22,400 joint and $16,800 head of household, and each exemption is $5,250. Both fall by 20 percent for each $7,450, or part of it, by which your modified federal AGI is more than $261,000, and are gone above $290,800, for every filing status (R.I. Gen. Laws 44-30-2.6(c)(3), 2026 RI-1040ES).

For 2025 the phase-out starts at $254,250 in steps of $7,250.7

About this estimate

If you enter your Social Security, the calculator assumes you and any spouse have reached full retirement age, and shows a warning with what the bill would be if you have not. If you say everyone on the return is under 65, it taxes the benefits, because no one under 65 has reached full retirement age. If you do not enter it, it warns you when a win takes your federal AGI over the line where the Social Security exemption ends.

Sources

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

1. ADV 2025-22: the property tax relief credit for 2025, household income to $40,730 and at most $700 (checked 2026-10-12)
2. R.I. Gen. Laws 44-33-9: the property tax relief credit, property tax over a percentage of household income (checked 2026-10-12)
3. 280-RICR-20-55-8, withholding on Rhode Island Lottery and pari-mutuel winnings follows federal withholding (checked 2026-10-05)
4. 2025 Taxable Social Security Income Worksheet, line 7: the modification only below the AGI line (checked 2026-09-26)
5. ADV 2025-22, 2025 inflation adjustments, the Social Security modification lines (checked 2026-09-26)
6. Form RI-1040 instructions (2025), Rhode Island does not allow federal itemized deductions (checked 2026-09-11)
7. Advisory 2025-22, inflation-adjusted amounts for tax years 2025 and 2026 (checked 2026-09-11)
8. R.I. Gen. Laws 44-30-2.6, imposition of tax and definition of taxable income (checked 2026-09-11)
9. 280-RICR-20-55-8, withholding on lottery and pari-mutuel winnings (checked 2026-09-11)
10. Rhode Island Advisory ADV 2025-22, 2026 phase-out range for the standard deduction and exemptions (checked 2026-09-25)
11. R.I. Gen. Laws 44-30-2.6(c)(3), the standard deduction and exemptions and their phase-out by modified federal adjusted gross income (checked 2026-09-25)
12. 2026 Form RI-1040ES, standard deduction, exemption and phase-out worksheets (checked 2026-09-25)
13. R.I. Gen. Laws 44-30-71.2, withholding from lottery, video lottery terminal and casino gaming winnings (checked 2026-10-08)
14. R.I. Gen. Laws 42-61.2-1(2), casino gaming means table and casino-style games approved through the division of state lottery (checked 2026-10-08)
15. R.I. Gen. Laws 42-61.2-2.1, state-operated casino gaming at Twin River in Lincoln (checked 2026-10-08)
16. R.I. Gen. Laws 42-61.2-2.3, state-operated casino gaming in Tiverton (checked 2026-10-08)
17. Division of Taxation, summary of 2019 legislative changes, the Division of State Lottery withholds at 5.99 percent (checked 2026-10-08)

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)
19. 26 U.S.C. 3402(q)(3)(A), withholding on wagering proceeds, and 26 U.S.C. 3402(q)(5), which exempts slot machines, keno and bingo, 2024 edition of the US Code (checked 2026-10-18)

We could not confirm these from an official source: whether any city or county tax applies; the withholding rate.