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I am not a tax professional nor am I up to date on recent tax changes, but from the readings I've done on this, it sounds like the CPA is getting confused with the issue.

As a non-professional, your gross winnings go into income while your losses go into deductions. These deductions are known as itemized deductions. You can either itemize your deductions(the deductions from your gross income the IRS allows - subject to certain minimums(medical) and percentages(meals)). Or you can take the "standard" deduction which is basically the amount the IRS allows us to deduct without having to "prove" anything. If your itemized deduction is greater than your standard deduction, you should obviously itemize. Most of the time itemizing is beneficial when you own a house with a mortgage because generally the interest is tax deductible. In your case, you probably used the standard deduction because you didn't have significant itemized deductions. THIS IS INCORRECT because your itemized deduction would be your gambling losses.

EX. If you won $400,000 and lost $399,000, you made $1,000 in gambling income. As a non-professional, you would report 400k on top line and have to "give-up" the standard deduction in order to itemize your gambling losses of $399,000.

Alternatively, you could attempt to file as a professional and then do all these calculations on a schedule A(I think)and still get the standard deduction, but now you're subject to self-employment taxes(both shares of social security, medicare)

Short answer: FIND ANOTHER CPA!