The Glade 4.0

Well, if they are going to tax you on "earnings" made at the Casino, then losses at the casino should also be able to be written off. I think that makes sense.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

You can write off your losses vs. your winnings.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Not if they are talking about taxing gross winnings.

And this line of thinking, if true, should be deeply troubling, since net is the same basis for calculating taxes on investment return.

You'll note, I used the present tense, as that is the information available I am unable to divine future tax laws.

As to the "taxing gross winnings", the only gambling tax proposal associated with the government take-over of health care, that I know about, dealt with online gambling - it was rapidly withdrawn.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Your comment was to a response about potential future taxes, making it appear to me at least, your statement was in regards to the legislation mentioned by X that spawned this topic.

My comment was in response to Rafael's statement regarding Aegnor's anecdote about a past event (the posts immediately preceding mine). Sorry if it confused you.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

I went and actually looked it up in the actual bill, apparently it applies to ALL gross annual income over $1,000,000. Gambling being hit is just a side effect. So recreational gamblers have nothing to worry about, it's just going to extinguish professional gambling because to reliably make say $50k a year with a 1% advantage you have to bet through several million and have say winnings of $2,025,000 and losses of $1,975,000.

Here's the link, it's on page 337:
http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

There are many ways to gamble professionally besides blackjack (I am assuming that's what your reference to 1% advantage meant).

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

I figured he was talking about craps.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

As far as I know, there is always a house advantage in craps - anywhere from 0.02% to 16.67% depending on the odds, rules and bet.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

going through my statistics class... I do not think there is any game where it is not house advantage.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Ayup, they even get the rake in poker. As the saying goes: They didn't build those nice hotels with their fancy chandeliers and gold-plated water faucets by by losing money.
The only thing I came up with is card counting in blackjack (that what I was referencing above). I guess we'll have for X to tell us what he is referring to.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

ya wanna get your money's worth at a casino... go in, skip the gambling hit the buffet...

I gets me my money's worth in there...

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Oh yeah, some of the best gut busting buffet meals to be had anywhere, more than reasonable priced.

/Looks at his bowl of grape nuts.

/cries.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

You can also win in poker. Sure, the house takes 5% of the pot, but if you're better than the other players you can still make money. The issue is since it counts your gross income it's very easy to hit over a million dollars in gross income even if your net income is only a few thousand dollars due to how much $$$ you have to bet through with a small advantage.

The law also magnifies the losses for people wealthier than the average who just play for fun. If you bet $100 in craps and take 10x odds (putting down $1100 total) the expected loss is 70 cents. Every time you make this bet you will on average win $1099.65 and lose on average $1100.35. Before the law, if you make 1000 such bets you can expect to lose $700. After the law if you make 1000 such bets you lose $700 and have to pay $5381 in tax. Whoops.

Gambling losses are deductable when calculating gross income from gambling. So if you win $1000, but lose $999, your gross winnings (not net) are $1. It's counterintuitive, I know, but "gross" is not as all encompassing as it sounds.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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Does gambling economics work differently than normal accounting, because the $1 left over after losses would be net, not gross.

Actually, that's not quite true, either.

It works the same way as retail sales.

Gross income from retail sales is the amount sold minus the cost of goods.
Net income from retail sales is the gross income minus any operating costs.
So the cost of inventory is deducted from gross revenue, but the cost of storage and utilities and wages are not.

With gambling, losses are treated much like inventory costs.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I would say it's more accurate to say the cost of inventory is deucted to calculate gross revenue.

Of course, now we could argue, depending on your business, that "operating cost" items could be considered "inventory". I.E. electricity for a power plant because of the way power is distributed and produced.

Likewise, someone could argue inventory items may sometimes be part of the operating overhead.

Accountants are second in line behind lawyers on the highway to hell.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

The three games with the lowest house edge have historically been blackjack, craps, and baccarat. The introduction of video poker recently (recently in the sense of how long gambling has been around, obviously it's been available for a fairly long time) has jumped that ahead of baccarat. This is assuming proper strategy. Live poker is a different beast, the house has no edge, as it is not laying you odds. The rake is an expense, but is paid by the pot, not an individual player.

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I like pokies.. not playing them but just watching them being played.. something about the shiny lights that attract me.

Shopping in Las Vegas is so much better than casinos anyways, plus you guys charge so much for shows >.<

And don't get me started on the food! No good food deserves to be consumed in such large portions! EVER! I can barely finish an entree by myself >.<