Follow-Up: Couple’s lottery 5-week winning streak was simple luckPrevious TopicNext Topic

In that case, maybe they were, and maybe they weren't .

There's a tax advantage in NM if you win any money, to having a lot of dead loss tickets.  I used to know a guy in Socorro who knew every convenience store clerk in town, related to most of them, and had them save every losing ticket someone gave them to check and to throw away, then pass them on to him.

Mike was his name, and Mike could have easily shown to be spending that amount, or more on lottery tickets.

I'd be amazed if something similar couldn't be arranged anywhere in the US if a person wanted to go to the trouble of doing it.

J

This story make one think if any of those stories about people who have never won a jackpot but win enough to make a living playing the lotteries regularly were true, the lotteries would know about them.

I used to do that. Collect losing tickets just in case I did hit a big one I could right off some of the winnings.

i really wonder....

No body is more of a crook than our politicians. We just had our 3rd alderman in four years indited for campaign fraud. Nosiree, we can take pride in the Milwaukee politicians being dirty, scheming connivers. That's why they run for election.

But iin Wisconsin, the state has a specific tax law against what you mention. You are not allowed to deduct your losses in gambling (even to the extent of your winnings) at all on your taxes. So this wouldn't help them. Whatever you lose on gambling in this state, you lose. No tax advantage whatsoever.  I think part of the reason they passed that law was because people were doing things like you mentioned "Mike" was doing.  Our politicians really, really hate for there to be any loopholes at all that could keep them out of our pockets.  That's why many of us refer to our fine state as "Taxconsin". It's also why we're the 3rd or 4th highest taxed state in the nation.

Nice State, though.  At least it was the last time I tubed down the Apple River, maybe 35 years ago.

But as to whether the these people spent $2500 bucks a week on lottery tickets, or merely gave the appearance of spending that much, I'd say you folks in WI must be pretty surprisingly law abiding if you're willing to assume nobody does it, simply because it's verboten in the Criminal Code of Wisconsin.  You're lucky to live in such a place.

Here in NM we break all manner of laws (of which this is probably one, though I haven't checked) just getting through day-to-day life and never pause to notice.  If these people were in New Mexico they'd be in grave danger of having dug those tickets out of the trash, whether or not it was a criminal offense.  If they gave a free ticket for every five dead ones, but said we couldn't use the ones discarded by others we'd all be dumpster-diving and knifing one another over the proceeds down at the County Landfill.

Nice, law abiding population up where you are.

Jack

I'm not sure if you can deduct losers against NY state tax.

A surprising admission.

Jack

Nice State, though.  At least it was the last time I tubed down the Apple River, maybe 35 years ago.

But as to whether the these people spent $2500 bucks a week on lottery tickets, or merely gave the appearance of spending that much, I'd say you folks in WI must be pretty surprisingly law abiding if you're willing to assume nobody does it, simply because it's verboten in the Criminal Code of Wisconsin.  You're lucky to live in such a place.

Here in NM we break all manner of laws (of which this is probably one, though I haven't checked) just getting through day-to-day life and never pause to notice.  If these people were in New Mexico they'd be in grave danger of having dug those tickets out of the trash, whether or not it was a criminal offense.  If they gave a free ticket for every five dead ones, but said we couldn't use the ones discarded by others we'd all be dumpster-diving and knifing one another over the proceeds down at the County Landfill.

Nice, law abiding population up where you are.

It's got nothing to do with lawabiding. You can not declare any gambling losses on your state taxes here. You can have all the losing tickets you want. There is no place on the tax form for it because it is not allowed see? If you tried to write it in as some kind of deduction, you'd send up a red flag, be audited and it would be disallowed. Nobody can get away with it. If you win a million bucks and you have a million bucks in losing tickets, you can not "wash out" the win with a deduction for the losses. It is just not possible on the state taxes. Now years ago, it was allowed. Then they changed the tax law.

I save my losers, and now I keep a written record of my purchases.

good way of thinking....