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Candidates’ Vices: Craps and Poker
[Quote:]
For centuries, the nation’s political leaders have loved their games of chance. Andrew Jackson owned fighting cocks and raced horses. Richard Nixon helped finance his first congressional race with his World War II poker winnings. Teddy Roosevelt noted that the professional gamblers he knew “usually made good soldiers.” But even among this crowd, McCain and Obama are distinctive. For both men, games of chance have been not just a hobby but also a fundamental feature in their development as people and politicians. For Obama, weekly poker games with lobbyists and fellow state senators helped cement his position as a rising star in Illinois politics. For McCain, jaunts to the craps table helped burnish his image as a political hot dog who relished the thrill of a good fight, even if the risk of failure was high.
From the looks of it, Obama plays poker with buddies, for a few dollars at most, while McCain hits the casino’s hard. Fine with me - it’s his money, and if he wants to gamble it away, who cares - although a legitimate question would be what he would do with public money. But there’s an more serious problem here. Reporting losses and winnings to the IRS. Here are some relevant instructions for filing from IRS Form W-2G. Although that form is for declaring winnings, note the form also has clear instructions even if you are gambling and losing money as well:
Generally, report all gambling winnings on the “Other income” line of Form 1040. You can deduct gambling losses as an itemized deduction, but you cannot deduct more than your winnings. Keep an accurate record of your winnings and losses, and be able to prove those amounts with receipts, tickets, statements, or similar items that you have saved.
It is pretty obvious why Uncle Sam wants to know if you are winning significant sums of money gambling. Why would Uncle Sam care if you were losing? Well, for starters, gambling is an all-cash transaction. If you don’t regulate it, you are just inviting people to launder money through casinos.
If McCain is winning and not declaring — that’s a crime. If he is losing and not taking the deductions, that is peculiar for a lot of obvious reasons. It means he never wins. If he is losing his own money and not taking the deduction, it looks like he is trying to hide a problem. If he is losing other people’s money that certainly raises questions about influence peddling if they have business in front of his committee. Whether he is winning or losing, it doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to see how a lobbyist bankrolling the senator’s marathon craps session might be using this as a way of funnelling money into the senator’s coffers without drawing attention to the transactions.
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So, Obama being good buddies with lobbyists means he is free from lobbyist influence, while McCain playing in a casino means he breaks the tax law?
Not that I like McCaine, it’s just an interesting way of saying “Whatever Obama does, it is right”.
This is confused. You can only deduct your losses from your winnings. You cannot deduct pure losses. It is a very unfair system. As it is, most people would not declare anything since most lose when they throw the dice. It is not the result of a character defect if he is not claiming his losses. The gambling itself may be character defect though.
Roland, read again - it’s not the lobbying I’m attacking here (I may be against it, but that’s for another story), it’s the hiding and the criminal acts I’m attacking..
Ok, but where does the article say he does not report his winnings or losses? You put there an “If” but there is nothing indicating that he does not report. Not that I say that he reports his winnings or losses, but there were not one thing that points to him not declaring.
The hiding, well, not one of the candidates has ever answered a question straight - we don’t know what they want to do apart from lets hope or you need experience or you need an old guy who was a war prisoner. They are - so far - the same in this respect.
Ok, but where does the article say he does not report his winnings or losses?
Nowhere, because it doesn’t need to - you can do the checking yourself, his tax returns are public:
http://www.johnmccain.com/mccainfinancial/
Ok. I would have put it in the post, so people like me, who have no idea where to find it, can check it and nod - the pig!