Issues involving Tax Rules for gamblers

[Toonces]

While we are talking about organizing to legalize poker in more venues, we should be also be talking about how to make tax laws for gambling more equitible and reasonable.

- Remove the requirement that winnings are tracked seperately from losses in tax forms.
Currently, you must sum all winning sessions seperately from all losing sessions. This creates lots of unfairness, including:
- Those taking standard deductions have to pay tax on gambling winnings without the opportunity to deduct losses.
- State tax in many states is based on AGI, which means that all winning sessions are subject to state tax regardless of loss
- Having winning sessions added to your AGI can eliminate your ability to have a Roth IRA and many other benefits.

- States should allow people to decuct gambling losses on their tax forms.
As mentioned above, many states base their taxes on AGI, ignoring deductions. As long as the IRS code stays that way, someone who breaks even or loses at gambling still needs to pay tax on individual wins.

- Increase the reporting limits on jackpots and tournament wins.

Currently, all $600 tournament wins and $1200 jackpot wins generate tax forms, even if those amounts are no longer a truly significant win, and often actually can represent a net loss, depending on the machine. Also, the Poker win does not subtract the entry fee.