After reading the IRS memo on gambling wins/losses and sessions, this just shows how out of date tax regs are in relationship to gambling as it exists today.
These regs were probably introduced 40 years ago or more. Back then, hitting a $1200 jackpot was a rare event and generally meant that you won a substantial amount for the day. Not so anymore on either count. Today, W2Gs are pretty common and losing money for the day even though you hit 'the big one' is also common.?When the rules were drafted, they didn't envision casino gambling in almost every state or multiline machines or $5 - $25 machines. All of this has made the current gambling laws cumbersome at best.
It seems to me that this IRS memo is trying to instill some common sense into the gambling tax laws. Maybe some day, gambling taxes will be treated the same way stock taxes are today. One can hope.
It will be interesting to see how the IRS auditing people treat this memo.
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