It’s a truism: if you gotta gamble in a casino, lay off the slots. They’re the worst-paying game in the place.

But Katherine J. Kalk, T. C. Memo. 2024-82, filed 9/4/24, confounds both me and six (count ’em, six) IRS attorneys, as she stips out with IRS that she won amounts equal to in one, and more in five, tax years than IRS originally allowed.

KJK was trying to develop a “casino app” to help slotniks track their action and casino marketers get angles on patrons, but that never came to fruition. She claims she gambled to get “patrons’ perspective” and get in with the casino’s marketing people. She also had a full-time job as a computer consultant.

The consultant activity’s deductions founder on the usual indocumentado. But the gambling losses survive, despite KJK’s somewhat casual recordkeeping.

“As a backup position petitioner urges that we estimate her gambling losses by considering evidence supplied by her bank statements. We have previously held that relevant evidence may include ‘casino ATM receipts, canceled checks made payable to casinos, * * * and credit card statements stating that cash was advanced at the casinos.’ We will do the same here.” T. C. Memo. 2024-82, at pp. 18-19. (Citation omitted).

KJK has bank statements showing cash withdrawals at casino ATMs, and those substantiate amounts KJK claimed.

But notwithstanding getting more winnings than she first claimed, KJK still ends up behind.

Lay off the slots.