There are a few items which might be worth adding to the mostly accurate discussion of the technical aspects of signers. Not all ADWs \"aggregate\" your bets so that you end up with signers which would otherwise not have been signers. Equally important, in what can only be described as an example of bonehead design, the United Tote self betting terminals where you swipe a betting card (like the ones at Sar) do aggregate your bets, so you will end up with signers you wouldn\'t have had if you went to the window or used one of the self betting terminals where you get a ticket for each bet. The only way to avoid that result is to log out and then log back in after every bet.
fwiw, I\'ve been audited twice, one a so-called \"super audit\", and did not have a problem with the \"all\" winning wagers language in the regulations. It\'s obviously a good idea to save losing tickets, but don\'t make the mistake a fellow I know made by indiscriminately collecting and using others\' losing tickets. He ended up being audited by what I\'m guessing is one of the few IRS agents who is a horseplayer, and had a hard time explaining why he bet all but one horse in a number of races, as well as why many of the tickets had shoe prints on them.
Also, if you make the kind of score which has you considering the possibility of changing your occupation to \"professional gambler\", get some advice from a competent tax professional before you take that step. If it\'s in their interest, there\'s a pretty good chance the IRS will challenge it, and even if they don\'t, there\'s a better than good chance that whatever you save in any particular year will be more than offset by what are mostly negative long term consequences.
The real reason for my post, however, is to expand on the comment that there is a \"movement to repeal withholding.\" There is indeed such a movement, as well there should be, given that despite inflation, there has been very little change in these numbers for decades, and witholding doesn\'t apply to any other form of gambling. I learned this week that the industry\'s efforts are much farther along than I realized, and are being spearheaded by politically savvy Peggy Hendershot of the NTRA, who is dealing with, among others,a gentleman I\'ve always thought of as a great American,one Charles Rangel. As an aside, Peggy\'s efforts are why the recently issued IRS rules on poker tournaments don\'t apply to handicapping contests. More to the point, the final push to make the withholding changes a reality will depend in large part on whether enough players are willing to get off their you know whats to make their voices heard. In case you\'re wondering, there\'s a way of doing just that which requires very little effort on your part. It\'s by putting up the modest $125 to join the NHC Tour, which includes automatic enrollment in the Horseplayers\' Coalition. In addition to Peggy\'s periodic reports on this and other issues which directly impact players and tracks, everything an interested player needs to make his or her voice heard will be available on a separate section of the site where sign-ups start on February 15, namely NTRA.com/NHCTour.
