Challenge to Singer / Argentino

[redietz]

Regnis and Dan, I'm relying on you two to verify and modify this, but this is my understanding. I'm not sure my late cousin, E.R. Dietz, explained this to me properly, but he seemed to know what he was talking about.

Mickeycrimm is more right than wrong. You should not, as an individual, file as a professional gambler unless it is your sole income-producing, full-time endeavor. The gambling is supposed to be full-time and to the exclusion of all other income-producing activities. Now, there is a recommended way to sidestep this, but it almost certainly requires other people unless you had a verifiable history of winning at gambling.

This, of course, begets the question, "How could any individual who lost money gambling five or six or seven years consecutively as an 'AP' be approved for a professional label as a sole individual without using the sidestepping technique?" The short answer is that the individual cannot, as all that has been established is that the individual has a consistently money-losing hobby. If there had been a windfall gambling, it's conceivable (not likely, but conceivable) that income averaging and a redefinition as a professional gambler could possibly be argued retroactively, but income averaging for everyone but farmers and fishermen ended in 1987. So anything like this would have had to occur prior to 1988.

I have no idea why, but I looked up some of this a few hours ago. A professional gambler can net all wagering activity but cannot show an overall wagering loss. Also, as with any normal business you can deduct any normal and ordinary business expenses.

I tried to review some of the rules for Schedule C but it was too long for me to digest in one sitting. The funny thing is that I work for myself as an engineer and use the Schedule C but I am damn to know the full rules for a gambler.

Unfortunately for the redietz guess, what a professional gambler does in any year or years prior to begin filing as such, is totally irrelevant. Yes he wants it to BE that a recreational gambler who loses is not allowed for some strange reason to then begin filing as a pro. But his limited knowledge once again bites him in the wrong place. And filing as a pro gambler does not require you show a profit every single year, although I did.

Keep trying idiots. You'll continue to see how close you can get to the mickeycrimm model of excellence.

No, what I clearly said is that you can switch from recreational to professional as long as gambling is your full-time sole income source. If it's not, then you should not. My apologies. I was not aware you were not employed by others during your stint as a professional. That clears up many things.