Recently, a number of players have emailed us surprised to have received a 1099-K form from PayPal. The funds detailed mostly include funds received from withdrawals from HorseTourneys or other gaming entities that offer PayPal or Venmo as withdrawal options. In case you are not aware, Venmo is owned by PayPal, thus they are one and the same in terms of reporting. Please understand that these forms are NOT generated by HorseTourneys. We send our own 1099-MISC forms to those players that qualify for one.

All third-party payment providers such as PayPal and Venmo are required to file 1099-K forms with the IRS if funds sent to individuals exceeds certain thresholds. Once over $20,000, this threshold was reduced to $5,000 for 2024 and will reduce to $2,500 in 2025, and again down to $600 in 2026. That the thresholds are now much lower is the primary reason players are now receiving these forms.

All funds sent to individuals from businesses (like Bet Twice Consulting, LLC, the legal name for HorseTourneys) are classified as “goods and services.” For several years now, PayPal has not permitted businesses to send funds via “friends and family”, thus, any funds sent by a business to individuals now apply toward that 1099-K threshold.

While we cannot offer tax advice, if you do receive a 1099-K from PayPal, in most cases, taxes don’t need to actually be paid on this 1099-K. We suggest that you consult with a tax advisor on how to address your particular situation.

Moving forward, to avoid this being an issue for you this year and beyond, we highly recommend that you primarily use bank transfer (ACH) for withdrawals. Payments sent directly to player bank accounts are not subject to this kind of third-party payment reporting.

More information on this can be found on PayPal’s website.

Please contact us if you have any further questions.

McKay Smith
President
HorseTourneys.com

It’s obviously very early still in 2025, but key pushes in the HorseTourneys Tour standings can absolutely come at any point in the year. Take, for example, the exploits this past week of Darryl Lacy.

Last year, Eric “Skeet” Boyd set a HorseTourneys record by capturing nine featured weekend cash tourneys. The remarkable showing of excellence and consistency led to him being crowned 2024 HorseTourneys Tour Champion.

Last weekend, though, Boyd enjoyed his biggest victory yet, taking home a total of $144,519 for topping a field of 286 entrants in the two-day Flo-Cal Faceoff—an event that required contestants to make mythical $2.00 win and place selections on each race of the Saturday and Sunday cards from Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park.

Last year, HorseTourneys unveiled a four-race series of its top events, the Flo-Cal Faceoff in January, the Players Championship in April, the Spa & Surf Showdown in August and the brand new Pick & Pray® Classic in November. Known as the HorseTourneys Grand Slam, the series awarded bonuses to those who, based on a points formula, performed best throughout the four marquee tourneys.

This year, there’s another addition.

HorseTourneys is introducing a fifth competition to the series: the $250,000 Guaranteed New York, New York Challenge. The resulting five-contest sequence will be known, collectively, as the HorseTourneys Champions Series.

Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols picked 4 winners and 1 runner up across the 12-race featured schedule on Sunday. One of his victors was a whopper—Go Jocelyn Go ($52.00, $26.80) in the 9th at Tampa Bay Downs. The final scoring total for Nichols was $101.20.

That total wasn’t the highest of the day. A small handful of players did better. But no one accomplished more with what they had, thanks to Nichols’s aggressive multi-tabling.

No sooner was Eric “Skeet” Boyd crowned 2024 HorseTourneys Tour champion then the 2025 edition of the HT Tour got underway. Again, it will be a year-long competition concluding on December 31st. Here’s how it works:

Potential tax liability at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers is a function of a player’s total NET WITHDRAWALS for a calendar year. Net withdrawals are defined as the total of a player’s WITHDRAWALS minus the total entry fees (i.e., purchases) played at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers for the calendar year. Auto entries (entries won from feeder events) are counted according to their entry fee value.

If the total of NET WITHDRAWALS exceeds $600, the player will receive a 1099-MISC form in late January or early February following the year of qualification. 1099-MISC forms are the only tax forms issued (no W2Gs or otherwise).

The formula is simple:

NET WITHDRAWALS = Total Withdrawals minus Total Entry Fees (Purchases) for year

If the total of the NET WITHDRAWALS exceeds $600, a 1099-MISC form will be issued.

REPORTS: Please note that players may request updated activity reports of their activity at any time in the My Account section. These reports include total PURCHASES, DEPOSITS and WITHDRAWALS for the year selected.

To compute net withdrawals, players simply need to total the WITHDRAWALS and PURCHASES amounts from the spreadsheet, and apply the above calculation.

Questions may be directed toward support@horsetourneys.com.

Our first featured tourney of the week, Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, reminds us of a powerful lesson perhaps espoused most effectively by noted philosopher Felix Unger.

Never assume.

We’ve often amused ourselves in recent years referring to Eric Boyd as Eric “B Connected” Boyd in a nod to the name of the Boyd Gaming players card utilized at The Orleans. However, we now feel compelled to officially change his HorseTourneys nickname to Eric “Skeet” Boyd.

Why? 

Because that is his actual nickname…and it has been such for a very long time.