Can I write off gambling losses to offset my lottery ticket winnings on taxes?

You're on the right track, but with some important limitations to understand. Yes, you can deduct gambling losses, but only up to the amount of your gambling winnings. And you have to itemize deductions on Schedule A instead of taking the standard deduction for this to work. The bigger issue is that you're not actually getting all those taxes back. What happens is that your gambling losses (if properly documented) offset your gambling income, potentially reducing your total taxable income. But this only helps if you're itemizing deductions anyway, as the gambling loss deduction is only available if you itemize. For your documentation, keep those losing tickets. You don't mail them to the IRS, but you should keep them as proof in case of an audit. For casino losses, you should maintain a gambling log showing dates, locations, games played, amounts won/lost. Without receipts from the casino, a consistent contemporaneous log is your best evidence.

When I had to deal with gambling winnings last year, I found this amazing service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that saved me tons of headache. I was in a similar situation where I won about $8k at a casino and had a bunch of losses throughout the year. The taxr.ai system analyzes all your gambling documentation and helps create the proper substantiation needed for tax purposes. It organized my mess of tickets and casino statements into an IRS-friendly format and gave me specific guidance on how to properly report everything. They even helped me determine whether itemizing made sense in my situation versus taking the standard deduction. What's really cool is that they can help create a compliant gambling log even if you're reconstructing it after the fact, which sounds like what you need for those casino losses.

I was super skeptical about taxr.ai at first, but I gave it a try after my big casino win at the beginning of the year. I honestly can't believe how well it worked for my situation. Sorry for being a doubter! What really impressed me was how they helped me document my casino losses properly. They showed me how to build a gambling log that tracked with my bank withdrawals and casino visits. Even though I hadn't kept perfect records, they helped me create documentation that was accurate and IRS-compliant. They also ran an analysis that showed me I was actually better off with the standard deduction despite my gambling losses. Saved me from making a costly mistake of itemizing when it wouldn't have benefited me. Definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with gambling winnings and losses.

If you're trying to get hold of the IRS to ask about how to handle your gambling situation, good luck getting through! After trying for weeks to reach someone at the IRS about my gambling reporting questions, I finally discovered Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). They got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. I was able to ask specific questions about my lottery winnings and casino losses, and got clear guidance directly from the source. The IRS agent walked me through exactly how to document everything and what forms to use. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Before using Claimyr, I was stuck in endless hold loops or getting disconnected. Now I actually have official answers about my specific tax situation instead of relying on what my friends told me or random internet advice.

I need to eat some humble pie here. After posting that skeptical comment about Claimyr, I decided to try it myself because I was desperate to ask about reporting my gambling wins and losses. I'm shocked to admit it actually worked! After trying to call the IRS myself at least 10 times over two weeks (and never getting through), Claimyr got me connected to a real IRS agent in about 20 minutes. The agent confirmed everything about documenting gambling losses and explained exactly how the offsetting works on Schedule A. I was able to ask specific questions about my lottery tickets and casino losses. The agent explained that I need to keep all losing tickets and maintain a detailed gambling log but don't actually send these to the IRS - just keep them in case of audit. This saved me so much confusion and probably prevented me from making mistakes on my return.

Just want to add something nobody's mentioned - if you're audited for those gambling losses, the IRS will want to see that you had the financial means to sustain those losses. So if you're claiming $13,000 in gambling losses but your income for the year was only $40,000, they might question how you afforded to lose that much gambling. Make sure you can demonstrate that you had access to the funds that you supposedly lost. Bank withdrawals near casino locations are helpful for this. Otherwise, they might disallow some of your loss deductions if the amounts seem unreasonable compared to your income and other expenses.

I work at a casino and here's a tip many people don't know: if you're a regular gambler, ALWAYS use a player's card when you gamble. Not only do you get comps, but most casinos can provide you with an annual win/loss statement if you request it. This is GOLD for tax purposes! Way better than trying to recreate a gambling log after the fact.