--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Tom Robertson <thomasrrobertson@e...>
wrote:
>I am wondering how many of you have itemized your deductions and
used
>gambling losses to offset the reported income from W2G's? I have
>about $13000 in W2G's. I have pretty good records of daily play,
>however, the records do not reflect wins or losses on specific
>machines or in specific casinos. Have any of you gotten
a "win/loss"
>statement from a casino to use when reporting to IRS? I am going
to
>post this on the Las Vegas boards as well.
>
>Is this subject pertinent to any of you? It's that time of
year. If
>you have filed such a return has it been audited by IRS?
>
>Thanks and good luck to all,
>Nashville Rich
My experience has been that the IRS is lenient regarding amount of
detail in records. I don't keep track of specific machines, but I
do
keep track of type of machine and which casino I played in and I'm
confident, based on the absence of problems I had in an audit in
which
I had less detailed records than I keep now, that that would satisfy
the IRS. Most casino statements I've gotten are terribly
inaccurate,
and I've never used one with the IRS, but I assume they'll accept
them.
*********************************************************************
won / loss statements are not acceptable as a primary record , only
as a secondary account to your records & my experience is also irs is
ok with most personal records & yes they are not accurate, (tax court
agrees)
per tax court "records must contain enough information to accurately
determine taxable income & the tax owed on same"
best info irs.gov, look for Pub 17,
& ustaxcourt.gov , use the opinon search feature, MANY MANY opinons
on gambling, such as comps are consider a gift & not taxable,that
having a full time job or bizness ( non gambling) precludes you from
being claiming to be full time gambler, & "I did not keep any
records ,I just know i lost at least that amount" dont fly!!!
dont waste your $ on Ms Scott tax book, too many inaccuracies & it is
a " tax code to hard for you to understand , regulations are too
vauge, too many conflicting regs & only I can possiblley get you thru
the god-awfull maze" bull that some use to sell books, most cpas I
know find it "lacking" & "thin"
Full disclosure & in the issue of fairness: when this book came out I
criticize it & pointed out some errors & was attacked by the co-author
( & only the co-author, NOT Ms Scott)privately & on this site to the
point whre she threaten "to contact her friends at the Las Vegas
Distict Office to audit you if you are so confident" ( it as since
dropped off)
Rest assured tax payers , NOBODY has that kind of pull ,{too bad, i
could use the vacation!!} & if it is ever attempted, people go to
jail!!! But Me & Mr Cardoza, the vegas district director at that
time, are still waiting for the call.
As you can see i might be biased slightly. 
M J