For years I have seen the USA grab taxes from lottery winners - yet they do not allow people to claim the amounts they pay to buy lottery tickets. The same for

For years I have seen the USA grab taxes from lottery winners - yet they do not allow people to claim the amounts they pay to buy lottery tickets. The same for gambling. This is crooked on it's face, as we know the casino makes money and is taxed on that, so on the whole the bettors lose money. Same with the lottery. Strictly speaking the aggregate of deductions would exceed the winnings = zero tax due - but no, they tax one and not deduct the other. The US tax authority (IRS ~~= Inland Revenue in the UK) does this, yet the IR in the UK does not tax winnings or allow deductions of bets - this is simple fraud by fiat against the people, and the IRS has a huge infrastructure devoted to this. I suspect it is based on the so-called christian label 'evil' attached to lotteries/gambling?