Can I Claim Lottery Scratch-Offs on My Taxes?

It’s common knowledge that if you're lucky enough to win the lottery, Uncle Sam will invariably expect a portion. However, many people are not aware that they can also claim some lottery losses on their federal income taxes. As far as the IRS is concerned, these winnings are considered gambling regardless of whether they are from a raffle, a scratch-off, sports betting, lotto ticket, horse race or a slot machine payout from a casino – all must be reported as taxable income.

There are limitations to claiming these winnings. In order to claim the gambling loss deduction on your losses, you must also report any winnings (regardless of amount) on your tax return.

The short answer to this question is, yes, you can claim non-winning lottery tickets on your taxes. But, like most things involving the IRS, there are rules and requirements that must be met in order to do so. You won’t be able to deduct losses on your taxes if you go with standard deductions. To claim lotto ticket losses on your taxes, first, you will have to be eligible to itemize. If your total gambling losses – plus all of your other itemized expenses – exceed the standard deduction for your filing status, only then would you itemize.

To report any gambling winnings, keep accurate journals or records and proof of all your winnings and losses. These records should detail the date of your winnings or losses and the type of gambling you participated in. In addition, you will need the name of the people you were with and the amount you won or lost. Also, it's advised to keep losing scratch-off tickets, casino receipts, canceled checks or credit card statements that you used to gamble.

In the event the IRS takes a second, closer look at your tax returns, you will be able to easily prove any gambling losses tax deduction that you claimed.

Because you need to itemize to claim these deductions, you have to use IRS Form 1040 to report your winnings and losses. You will list all winnings you’ve received from gambling on ​Schedule 1, line 8​ of Form 1040, entitled Other Income. This should include winnings of any amount regardless of whether you were given cash at a poker game or you won a car at the casino.

Report gambling losses on Schedule A found on Form 1040 under Other Miscellaneous Deductions. To claim these deductions, you must report all of your winnings as income as well as claiming your qualifying losses separately. You cannot report only your losses or you might find yourself in hot water with the IRS.

While you can deduct gambling losses, these deductions cannot exceed the amount of your total winnings. For example, if you win $1,000 playing the lotto, but you’ve purchased $2,000 worth of losing tickets, you can write off the losing tickets only up to the amount of your $1,000 winnings, and not the entire $2,000 you lost playing.

The IRS does this because if you were allowed to deduct all of your losses, then the government would in essence be subsidizing gambling. With this rule in place, at most, you can avoid having to pay taxes on what you did win.

The definition of deductible gambling losses increased in 2018 to cover expenses involved in gambling beyond the cost of the bet itself. For example, the cost of travel to a casino or track might be deductible, or the cost of phone calls to place bets in states that allow betting by phone. This might not apply to lottery players in most cases, since there are rarely non-bet expenses involved in buying lottery tickets.

On the other hand, the standard deduction for single taxpayers is ​$12,400​ in 2020. This may mean fewer players will find it advantageous to itemize to deduct those gambling losses.