00:20you've got questions well we've got answers and we have the man to answer them jeffrey
00:24from buckingham jeffrey welcome back to another episode of ask the hammer hey bob good to be
00:29with 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
00:53enough 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
01:20gamble that does not make you a professional gambler i think that's something we have to get
01:24out of the way right away i've spoken to some retirees over the years like well i don't do
01:27anything else i guess i'm a professional gambler now no unless that's your regular job and you are
01:33truly engaged in it to make a profit uh that is you know that's a that's a tough bar to
01:38clear so for
01:39most people if you haven't won anything uh and you just have lost everything then you know no there's
01:46nothing to report you're you're in the clear i guess that's one good part about never winning
01:52no one will know that you lost so much money um a question right so many states are allowing uh
01:58online betting now i take it that the states will at least be able to track how much you've lost
02:03and
02:04how much you've uh won and at least maybe that will make it um easier to report should you have
02:09any
02:09winnings yeah and if you win enough you will get uh you will be issued a 1099 whether that's from
02:16online or from a casino when you win a significant amount of money you are issued a 1099 but again
02:22there is the ability to write off gambling winnings against those gambling law rather to write off
02:28gambling losses against those gambling winnings so just because you have a 1099 doesn't mean you have
02:34net positive income i mean a great example of this would be a business owner right a business owner if
02:38they receive 1099s from the uh you know from those who have paid them throughout the year well just
02:45because you received money doesn't mean you made a profit right you claim your expenses against it
02:50and it's very similar with gambling except with gambling you can't really run a loss right if you
02:55lose more than you win generally you just lose uh but if you win more than you lose you have
03:02to report
03:02that right but you don't get a tax benefit when you lose more than you win unless again you're a
03:07professional gambler which is a very high bar to try and and beat yeah well my guess is it's not
03:15a
03:15gamble should people write to us with their questions that's right don't gamble with your future ask us
03:20the question first and we'll give you the answer so if you have a question email bob and i give
03:25us a
03:26shout you can reach us at ask the hammer at buckinghamgroup.com that's ask the hammer at buckinghamgroup.com
03:33and bob and i look forward to answering your questions real soon
03:37you
Comments