Gold Coast Hotel & Casino v. United States, 158 F.3d 484 (9th Cir. 1998), was a court case that addressed whether a casino, using the accrual method of accounting, could deduct the value of slot club points earned by slot club members in the tax year in which the members accumulated the minimum points required to redeem a prize, or whether the casino had to wait to deduct the value of the slot club points until the members actually redeemed them. Background Accrual method taxpayers report income when earned and claim deductions when expenses are owed. Accrual method taxpayers may claim deductions in the taxable year in which all the events have occurred that establish the liability, the amount of the liability can be determined with reasonable accuracy, and economic performance has occurred with respect to the liability. Gold Coast Hotel is an example of a court applying the "all events" and "reasonable accuracy" prongs to determine whether a contingent liability is a deductible business expense. For a general comparison of accrual method to the cash method, the other major process used to determine when a taxpayer has income, see Cash Method v. Accrual Method. Facts Gold Coast Hotel & Casino (Gold Coast) is an accrual method taxpayer and operates a slot club, which is a promotional tool. Slot club members receive cards which they insert into the casino's slot machines. The cards track their slot club points, and a member may redeem the points for various prizes. At the time, each slot club point was worth $0.0021, such that 1,000 points entitled a customer to prizes worth $2.10. Under Nevada law, a customer's right to points became fixed when he or she accumulated 1,200 points. On its 1989 and 1990 tax returns, Gold Coast deducted as an expense the slot club points that had not yet been redeemed over the previous year's ending balance. On both returns, Gold Coast also recaptured as income the value of accumulated slot club points that had not been redeemed in over a year and which it had deducted as an expense in the prior year. Arguments Gold Coast argues that its deductions were proper because, using the all-events test, the last event that determined its liability occurred when the minimum number of slot club points needed to earn a prize is accumulated by a member, because under law the customer's right to the