I'm reading the Kiplinger Tax Letter of May 18, 2007
Disturbed at the rate of taxpayer noncompliance, Congress wants
the IRS to focus audit agents on a number of areas that will
generate more bang for the buck.
One of those is "Gamblers who underreport their winnings. And
those who net losses against winnings rather than report them as
miscellaneous itemizations."
It doesn't look like things are headed in a good direction for the
casual gambler.
TKinWIS
Does congress actually believe there are that many people that win
gambling. Other than people who win playing poker online the amount
of people who win gambling at best number in the thousands. Let's
break it down. Sports bettors who win placing bets in a casino are
impossible to trace. They bet in cash and collect in cash and if
they don't go over the CTR limit there is no way to know what they
won. Those who bet with street bookmakers are even more impossible
to know. Online bettors receive checks. It's up to the banks to
report strange checks showing up as deposits, the same holds true
for online poker players. Poker players who just play tournaments in
casinos are easy to track. There is a record of buy-in's and
cashouts. I really doubt these people are undereporting. They would
have to say they lost their money somewhere else in the casino. Next
we come to video poker players and as I stated the amount that
actually win is a small number. I think congress is blinded by the
televised poker and think that everyone is winning money and either
not reporting or under reporting it.
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, TK in WIS <tkinwis@...> wrote: