Becoming A Professional Gambler
By maintaining books and records show that you’re not just a casual gambler, you can prove that you’re a professional. Prepare for each tournament with a poker expert. This will show you consider gambling your job, and that improving your game is part of.
- Cut Your Losses Quickly. Knowing when to quit is an important quality to have in any profession.
- Becoming a Professional Gambler – Choose Your Discipline We like to say that gambling is a lot like martial arts. You can be a black belt in Muay Thai, and a complete beginner at Jiu-Jitsu. The same goes for gambling – you can be a semi-pro level poker player, but not have the first clue about trading the financial markets for a profit.
- Long story short, it’s possible to go from a small initial deposit to becoming a professional gambler. But you also need discipline, patience, and steady investments into your bankroll. Most gamblers aren’t willing to make these sacrifices. That said, it can sometimes feel.
- The Right Casino. Tip number 1 to becoming a professional gambler is picking the right online.
How To Be A Professional Gambler On The Horse Racing
Professional gamblers are treated differently from amateur gamblers for tax purposes because a professional gambler is viewed as engaged in the trade or business of gambling. The professional gambler reports gambling winnings and losses for federal purposes on Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business. To compute his or her business income, the professional gambler may net all wagering activity but cannot report an overall wagering loss. In addition, the taxpayer may deduct 'ordinary and necessary' business expenses (expenses other than wagers) incurred in connection with the business.
Whether a gambler is an amateur or a professional for tax purposes is based on the 'facts and circumstances.' In Groetzinger, 480 U.S. 23 (1987), the Supreme Court established the professional gambler standard: 'If one's gambling activity is pursued full time, in good faith, and with regularity, to the production of income for a livelihood, and is not a mere hobby, it is a trade or business.' The burden is on the gambler to prove this status.
In addition to applying the standard established in Groetzinger, courts sometimes apply the following nonexhaustive nine-factor test in Regs. Sec. 1.183-2(b)(1) used to determine intent to make a profit under the hobby loss rules to decide whether a taxpayer is a professional gambler:
- The manner in which the taxpayer carries on the activity;
- The expertise of the taxpayer or his advisers;
- The time and effort the taxpayer expended in carrying on the activity;
- An expectation that assets used in the activity may appreciate in value;
- The taxpayer's success in carrying on other similar or dissimilar activities;
- The taxpayer's history of income or losses with respect to the activity;
- The amount of occasional profits, if any, that are earned;
- The financial status of the taxpayer; and
- Elements of personal pleasure or recreation.
What if a professional gambler's 'ordinary and necessary' business expenses exceed the net gambling winnings for the year? In Mayo, 136 T.C. 81 (2011), the court held the limitation on deducting gambling losses does not apply to ordinary and necessary business expenses incurred in connection with the trade or business of gambling. Therefore, a professional gambler may report a business loss, which may be applied against other income from the year.
LIMITATIONS ON LOSS DEDUCTIONS
Some states do not permit amateur gamblers to deduct gambling losses as an itemized deduction at all. These states include Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. A taxpayer who has $50,000 of gambling winnings and $50,000 of gambling losses in Wisconsin for a tax year, for example, must pay Wisconsin income tax on the $50,000 of gambling winnings despite breaking even from gambling for the year.
Because professional gamblers may deduct gambling losses for state income tax purposes, some state tax agencies aggressively challenge a taxpayer's professional gambler status. A taxpayer whose professional gambler status is disallowed could face a particularly egregious state income tax deficiency if the taxpayer reported on Schedule C the total of Forms W-2G, Certain Gambling Winnings, instead of using the session method under Notice 2015-21. In this situation, the state may be willing to consider adjusting the assessment based on the session method if the taxpayer provides sufficient documentation.
For a detailed discussion of the issues in this area, see 'Tax Clinic: Taxation of Gambling,' by Brad Polizzano, J.D., LL.M., in the October 2016 issue of The Tax Adviser.
—Alistair M. Nevius, editor-in-chief, The Tax Adviser
The Tax Adviser is the AICPA's monthly journal of tax planning, trends, and techniques.
Also in the October issue:
- An analysis of executive compensation clawbacks.
- An update on recent developments in estate planning.
- A look at revisions to Forms 1042-S and W-8BEN-E.
AICPA members can subscribe to The Tax Adviser for a discounted price of $85 per year. Tax Section members can subscribe for a discounted price of $30 per year.
One of the fundamental premises of gambling is that the house always wins. If the house must win, players must lose – there is really no way around it. Or is there? Over the years, we’ve all heard stories and myths about people who made their living as professional gamblers. How is this possible if they’re bound to lose?In this blog, we’ll try to dispel some myths about the life of a professional gambler. In the right circumstances and with the right approach, it is actually possible to make a living this way. But what most professional gamblers are doing could hardly be called gambling.Defining a Professional Gambler
There are many people who spend a lot of time inside the casinos. Some are more successful than the others for any number of reasons, but the number of hours spent in a casino has nothing to do with someone being a professional gambler.Being a professional in any field usually means this is your primary occupation that ensures you have enough money to pay your bills and cover your lifestyle. With this definition, a professional gambler is someone who makes a majority of their income gambling.If you know anything about casino games, you know practically all of them have a house edge that ensures the casino always makes money on every single bet in the long run. So, a professional gambler is immediately faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. They have to invest their money knowing the odds are against them. So, how can you go around this obstacle?Bending the Edge
Someone seriously considering the life of a professional gambler must first understand one very important thing: luck alone can’t help you. You can’t rely on good runs to make up for your losses and give you some profit. From the mathematical point of view, this is simply impossible or at least highly improbable.So, the only way to do it is to find a way to bend the edge and somehow turn the odds to your favor. There are certain types of games where this is actually possible, and these are where you’ll find most successful professional gamblers.Betting on Sports
Sports betting is one area of gambling where it is actually possible for a bettor to overcome the inherent bookie’s edge and come out on top. There are various ways to do this, some more efficient than the others. The efficiency of your sports betting system will translate directly to your financial success, i.e., your bottom line.There are some professional gamblers who rely primarily on their knowledge of a particular sport. This can be a rather volatile approach, but someone very well informed about a certain sport or one of its segments can actually squeeze the profit. Although bookies make it their business to come up with lines and odds that are very hard to exploit, they usually have to juggle between hundreds of various matches and competitions.On the other hand, a punter focused solely on one league can have a type of insight that gives them a big enough edge to find the best bets out there. However, for someone to make living betting sports, one particular league usually doesn’t provide enough opportunities, so this isn’t the best approach.Those really serious about professional sports betting will use mathematical models and systems to take advantage of bookies’ mistakes and oversights. They also often resort to arbitrage betting, taking advantage of different lines with different bookies for the same event, guaranteeing they make a profit no matter what happens.So, betting on sports is one of the areas where professional gamblers can actually exist and beat the “house.” Of course, bookies are always on the lookout to protect their bottom line and come up with ideas to prevent professional bettors, so they have to constantly keep the pace.Professional Poker Players
Poker is a game often played inside a casino, but it doesn’t actually belong to the group of casino games. The reason for this is in the fact poker isn’t played against the house but rather against other players. The casino makes money from what’s known as “rake,” the small amount taken from every cash pot or tournament buy-in, which has nothing to do with who wins and who loses.With this being the case, poker is neutral for the casino. They are only interested in players playing as much as possible. This creates an opportunity for the players to become better than the competition and actually make a living playing poker.Although it is widely regarded as gambling, poker, especially its certain variations like Texas Hold’em, is much more about skill than about luck. The game is deeply based on math and statistics, and those able and willing to learn and expand on these fundamentals can constantly make a profit.This is evident from a long list of professional poker players who made millions over the years. With the game becoming hugely popular online as well over the past years, it created a situation where more and more players are able to get better and turn to poker as their profession.Playing Blackjack Professionally
We’ve all seen movies and read books about hugely successful blackjack players who took casinos on their own turf and walked away with millions. With blackjack being one of those casino games with a default casino edge, this is certainly impressive, and that edge is probably why it took a while for casinos to catch up.Professional blackjack players rely on two things. The first one is the basic blackjack strategy, the optimal system for playing the game, which dictates when to hit, when to stand, when to double, etc. Professional players always stick to the basic strategy to the letter and never deviate from it because it is the mathematically proven best model.The second part of the equation is card counting. In a nutshell, card counting means keeping track of all the low, medium, and high cards dealt. As more cards are dealt, and the blackjack shoe becomes shallower, the count becomes more important. A professional blackjack player will increase their bets once the card count is favorable to take full advantage of the situation.Although card counting is often shown as some sort of almost magical ability, it is actually quite simple and not that hard to learn. With some practice and good focus, almost anyone can learn how to count cards at a blackjack table and become pretty good at it.However, even a very good card counter will only have a small edge, which means the variance is still big, and there will be downswings and rough patches. Furthermore, casinos these days have caught up with card counting and are using various measures to prevent counters from making money. The simplest way to do it is by cutting the shoe often, which renders the whole counting process pretty much useless.Other Types of Professional Gamblers
Apart from the three groups described so far, there are other types of players who fit into the professional gambler category. These players, instead of trying to turn the odds of a particular game in their favor, actually take advantage of various casino promotions to make up for their losses. As you could probably guess, this isn’t a rich lifestyle, but some do make it work.Many casinos have various promotions for their regular players and club members. These include free or discounted meals and drinks, prize draws, and other types of promos, all of which have a proper cash value attached to them.Professional gamblers from this group will often spend many hours inside a casino, playing games with very low house edges, such as video poker, collecting points on their club cards. With these points, they can take advantage of the perks while losing very little in the long run. Once again, although this is far from any sort of a glamorous life, it can be a way to make ends meet if done right.Tips To Be A Professional Gambler
