Tax Court Ruling - Slot player in the business

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by pmacdaddy

Reading it through. It says she was allowed to deduct gambling losses to offset gains. Isn't that the case for anyone with reportable gambling income?

It says she wasn't allowed to deduct the net gambling losses against her regular (trucking) income. So what did she really accomplish?

Is it an issue of being able to deduct expenses associated with her slot play and carryover of losses?

I'm no expert on taxes but I believe the difference is that she could still take the standard deduction instead of having to do an itemized deduction. Let's say she made $50,000 from her business and $7,000 from gambling.

With the itemized deduction she would have $57,000 for income and then take off the itemized deduction of $7,000 to wind up at $50,000.

Being able to offset the $7,000 above the line means she only has income of $50,000. She wouldn't need an itemized deduction so could then take the standard deduction of $5,350 to wind up with $44,650. I assume this wouldn't work for anyone who is a homeowner and already does an itemized deduction.