Earning money from gambling, how is that work come tax time? -

Im not a gambler, never really into it much, Ive always relied on my education and hard work. Recently I was laid off, and work is nil in the area. Ive always been on a poker site, just with play money, and figured what the hell, so I made a $20 investment on Monday. The past couple days Ive surprised myself, and have been making just about what I would be making in a day at the office. How do these winnings factor into tax time at the end of the year? Granted I m not making millions, or thousands (yet), was just wondering so I don t get any surprise letters from the IRS. Thanks.|::::|There is a line somewhere that says quot;gambling incomequot; that you d punch in. You don t need any documentation, but keep any that would indicate such just in case. I d only worry about it unless I was making a couple a grand a per month. But I m no tax adviser, fwiw. Poker sites aren t required to report your winnings, but if you are making a significant (enough to live on) amount, talk to your local CPA. *BUT* you said you ve made money pretty quickly playing online. Just remember, it s easy for your head to swell and think you are a better player than you actually are. Be sure to practice proper bankroll management to make sure you know how to limit losses and know when to move up a level. There are some good online poker articles at http://poker-lobby.com Hope this helps.|::::|You wont have any problem with taxes if you win little. Also dont quit job or anything like that, its very hard to make steady income from gambling.|::::|Don t worry about it... unless ya hit the 10 mil or somethin...|::::|Its taxed as quot;capitol gainsquot; i believe, i personally dont condone paying taxes on it as while playing at a disadvantage as most gamblers are they will almost inevitably lose it at sometime in the future, so year one say you win 10g and pay taxes on it, year two you lose 10 g, you made zero profit gambling and payed taxes on money you no longer have, which is not right. You normally wont have to pay taxes on gambling winning from say playing table games because there is no documentation, there will only be documentation when you win or lose more than 5,000 dollars, went his happens the casinos are required by law to have you fill out a ctr form which is reported to the IRS, and they will KNOW that you won or lost more than 5k. If you hit a jackpot for over that on a slot machine your paying taxes on it. On the other end, ctr forms on table games are only payed when a player buys in, or cashes out over that amount, so if say you buy in 2k and win 10k in chips, you wont have to fill one out until you try to cash in 10k in chips, you dont have to do this though because you can simply cash in 4k in chips as a time anonymously until you have cashed in all of your chips. Also if you buy in over 5k, you will only be required to fill out the form if you buy in in cash, buying in with chips will not trigger a mandatory ctr form. You can deduct gambling losses from taxable gambling wins An occupations of quot;professional gamblerquot; is recignised by the irs