00:00you've got questions well we've got answers and we have the man to answer them jeffrey
00:24levin from buckingham jeffrey welcome back to another episode of ask the hammer hey bob good
00:29to be with you good to be with you i understand that your inbox has some questions in it right now
00:34yeah this week we got an interesting question especially for this time of year says hey
00:39i'm into sports betting but i haven't done so well if i haven't made any money is there anything
00:45to report to the irs and you know first off i guess i'm sorry but chances are if you bet enough you're
00:54not going to come out a winner that's the house usually wins and when we're looking at sports
01:00betting you have income to declare to the extent that you have winnings right you can declare
01:06gambling losses only to the extent that you have gambling winnings for most people right unless
01:12that is you are a professional gambler now just because you don't have any other job and you gamble
01:20that does not make you a professional gambler i think that's something we have to get out of the
01:24way right away i've spoken to some retirees over the years like well i don't do anything else i guess
01:28i'm a professional gambler now no unless that's your regular job and you are truly engaged in it to make
01:34a profit uh that is you know that's a that's a tough bar to clear so for most people if you haven't
01:41won anything uh and you just have lost everything then you know no there's nothing to report you're
01:47you're in the clear i guess that's one good part about never winning no one will know that you lost
01:53so much money um a question right so many states are allowing uh online betting now i take it that
02:00the states will at least be able to track how much you've lost and how much you've uh won and at least
02:06maybe that will make it um easier to report should you have any winnings yeah and if you win enough you
02:12will get uh you will be issued a 1099 whether that's from a online or from a casino when you win
02:18a significant amount of money you are issued a 1099 but again there is the ability to write off
02:24gambling winnings against those gambling law rather to write off gambling losses against those gambling
02:30winnings so just because you have a 1099 doesn't mean you have net positive income i mean a great example
02:35of this would be a business owner right a business owner if they receive 1099s from the uh you know
02:42from those who have paid them throughout the year well just because you received money doesn't mean
02:47you made a profit right you claim your expenses against it and it's very similar with gambling except
02:52with gambling you can't really run a loss right if you lose more than you win generally you just lose
02:59but if you win more than you lose you have to report that right but you don't get a tax benefit
03:04when you lose more than you win unless again you're a professional gambler which is a very
03:09high bar to try and and beat yeah well my guess is it's not a gamble should people write to us with
03:17their questions that's right don't gamble with your future ask us the question first and we'll give you
03:22the answer and so if you have a question email bob and i give us a shout you can reach us at ask
03:27the hammer at buckinghamgroup.com that's ask the hammer at buckinghamgroup.com and bob and i look forward
03:33to answering your questions real soon
03:35you
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