Non-Itemizer May Not Deduct Gambling Losses
Roger Torpie Jr. won $858 in a lottery that he reported on his 1996 income tax return. Torpie also deducted the $858 in determining his adjusted gross income although he did not itemize. The IRS disallowed Torpie’s $858 deduction.
The Tax Court agreed with IRS and held that the individual, not the trade or business of gambling, must itemize deductions to detect gambling losses. Thus, he was limited to deducting actual losses against reported winning on Schedule A as an itemized deduction.
(Roger John Torpie Jr. T.C. Memo. 2000-168)