Brenda T. Farris - Page 5




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          the extent of the gains from such transactions.”  See also sec.             
          1.165-10, Income Tax Regs.  Petitioner does not claim to be in              
          the trade or business of gambling, and we are, therefore, faced             
          with the question whether she is entitled to claim itemized                 
          deductions on a Schedule A.                                                 
               While we are convinced that petitioner purchased lottery               
          tickets that did not pay off, there are some obstacles in her               
          path.  First, we have no idea as to the dollar amount of those              
          tickets.  Petitioner appeared at trial with a paper bag full of             
          tickets; however, she did not know how many losing tickets were             
          in the bag.  She had not counted them, and the Court eschews that           
          responsibility.  We did, however, examine some of the tickets and           
          there appears to be an unsettling number of tickets from certain            
          days, even though petitioner testified that she played the                  
          lottery almost daily.  It seems as if the tickets had been picked           
          up on a random basis rather than daily.                                     
               Equally important, even if we were to assume that the amount           
          of losing tickets was as petitioner alleges (between $4,752 shown           
          in the petition and $6,000 at trial), we are still faced with the           
          problem that petitioner admits that she won considerably more               
          money than that which was reported to the Internal Revenue                  
          Service.  While respondent did not move to increase the                     
          deficiency, the additional amount of unreported lottery winnings            
          and the amount contained in the notice of deficiency ($5,200)               






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