Gambling winnings tax in Wisconsin

Wisconsin allows no deduction for losses, so a losing year can still produce a state tax bill. If you elect the session method and keep records, losses net against wins within each session only.

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

In short

While Wisconsin’s standard deduction is shrinking, a win raises your taxable income by more than the win itself.
Wisconsin does not let you net one gambling session against another. Your net gains from winning sessions are taxable, and your net losses from losing sessions are not deductible.2
The session method is worth more in Wisconsin, but you can use it only if you elected it on your federal return.2

How Wisconsin treats gambling losses

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Wisconsin allows no deduction for gambling losses. If you use the session method on your federal return and keep records, you must use it on the Wisconsin return too, and each session nets its own losses against its own wins. A losing session offsets nothing else.

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

Two examples, worked at 2026 Wisconsin 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
Wisconsin: $2,952
Total: $6,548

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. Wisconsin starts from your federal income and allows no deduction for gambling losses, so the full $50,000 is taxed at 5.3 percent, plus $302 because the win shrinks your standard deduction, which comes to $2,952.

A winning year

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

Federal: $10,350
Wisconsin: $2,952
Total: $13,302

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. Wisconsin starts from your federal income and allows no deduction for gambling losses, so the full $50,000 is taxed at 5.3 percent, plus $302 because the win shrinks your standard deduction, which comes to $2,952.

Wisconsin income tax rates, 2026

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

Taxable income	Rate
$0 to $15,110	3.5 percent
$15,110 to $51,950	4.4 percent
$51,950 to $332,720	5.3 percent
$332,720 and above	7.65 percent

The calculator also applies what this table leaves out: a personal exemption of $700 a person, taken before the table and a standard deduction that falls as income rises, taken before the table.

Withholding on winnings

Wisconsin withholds 7.65 percent. The payout that triggers it depends on the wager, and the lowest trigger is $1,000. The rules in the state's sources:

the state lottery: $2,000 or more.
pari-mutuel wagering: above $1,000 (paid by a Wisconsin racetrack, measured on the whole winnings from one wager).
other lotteries, sweepstakes and wagering pools, slot machines, keno and bingo, sports wagering, poker tournaments and other wagers: nothing is withheld unless the payer chooses to withhold, because Wisconsin requires it only of the Wisconsin Lottery and Wisconsin racetracks.

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 Wisconsin

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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).

Wisconsin allows no loss deduction, so the federal limit changes your federal bill and not your Wisconsin bill.

Wisconsin follows the federal code as it stood on 2022-12-31. The paragraph above says what this means for the federal 90 percent limit.

If you do not live in Wisconsin

A nonresident owes Wisconsin tax only on winning sessions from Wisconsin sources: tribal casinos and bingo in Wisconsin, pari-mutuel wagering at a Wisconsin racetrack, and the Wisconsin lottery. A resident gets a credit only if they actually file the other state return.

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

More about Wisconsin

The shrinking standard deduction

Wisconsin’s standard deduction gets smaller as income rises. For 2026, a single filer’s standard deduction of $13,960 falls by 12 percent of Wisconsin income above $20,120.4

For that single filer, the standard deduction is gone above $136,453. While it is shrinking, a win raises your taxable income by more than the win itself.

Gambling sessions

A gambling session is a period of continual play with only a short break.2

Wisconsin accepts the session method but does not let you net one session against another. Your net gains from winning sessions are taxable. Your net losses from losing sessions are not deductible, and you cannot use them for the itemized deduction credit.2

This makes the session method worth more in Wisconsin. In the department’s own example, four sessions that netted a $500 loss give $1,600 of Wisconsin taxable income, against $3,100 without the session method.2

The session method is an election, and you must keep records to use it. It is locked to your federal return. If you did not elect it federally, you cannot use it for Wisconsin.2

If you itemize

Wisconsin has an itemized deduction credit. It is 5 percent of qualifying itemized deductions above the standard deduction.

The credit grows as the standard deduction shrinks.

Rates you may see online

You may see Wisconsin brackets online that go up to 9.8 percent. That rate came from a budget proposal, not enacted law.

About this estimate

The calculator applies the shrinking standard deduction and the $700 personal exemption, $1,400 on a joint return. It takes off $250 more for each person 65 or older, and leaves out $700 for each dependent.

The calculator does not include the itemized deduction credit, which you can take whether or not you itemize federally. If your mortgage interest, gifts and other qualifying deductions are more than your Wisconsin standard deduction, the estimate is too high. The credit grows by 5 percent of the standard deduction the win takes away. Where the credit is more than your tax without the win, the rest of it also comes off the tax on the win, so the estimate can be too high by much more, up to the whole figure. The calculator also does not include the smaller standard deduction for a dependent.

Sources

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

1. Wis. Stat. 71.05(23)(b)3: an additional exemption of $250 for a taxpayer 65 or older, and $250 for a spouse 65 or older (checked 2026-10-12)
2. WI DOR Publication 600 (03/26), wagering winnings and losses (checked 2026-10-11)
3. Form 1-ES instructions (2026), Wisconsin tax rate schedules (checked 2026-09-11)
4. Form 1-ES instructions (2026), 2026 standard deduction tables and Schedule C for married filing separately (checked 2026-09-24)
5. Form 1-ES instructions (2026), exemptions of $700 a person (checked 2026-10-11)
6. Wis. Stat. 71.05(23)(b), the personal exemption (checked 2026-10-11)
7. Wis. Stat. 71.05(22)(dp), the sliding standard deduction and its rates (checked 2026-09-24)
8. Wis. Stat. 71.06(1r), individual income tax rates (checked 2026-09-11)
9. Wis. Stat. 71.01(6)(n), Internal Revenue Code as amended to December 31, 2022 (checked 2026-09-11)
10. Form 1 instructions (2025), itemized deduction credit (checked 2026-09-11)
11. WI Legislative Fiscal Bureau, federal tax law changes in P.L. 119-21 (2025-10-08) (checked 2026-09-11)

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

12. 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)

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