Accountant Asks Client For Gambling Records, Receives 4,113 Screenshots Of Wins
The client’s sportsbook statement for the same year shows a net loss of $38,900, which he says is “just what the app thinks.”
SACRAMENTO. A tax preparer who asked a client for a record of his gambling activity ahead of this week’s extended filing deadline received, in reply, a shared folder of 4,113 screenshots, each of them a winning bet.
I asked him for records. He sent me a highlights reel.
Ostrowski, 54, who has run a two-person accounting practice for nineteen years, said the folder took her assistant most of a week to open. The files are named by date and, in about a third of cases, by mood, with names including “EASY,” “told u” and “nana birthday parlay.”
Added together, the screenshots show winnings of $61,240. The client’s annual statement from his sportsbook, which Ostrowski requested separately, shows $412,000 in total wagers and a net loss for the year of $38,900.
The client, a 41-year-old heating contractor who asked not to be named, disputes the statement. In a voice memo forwarded to Gambling Paper, he said the losses were “mostly the same bet, just a lot of times,” and that he had not taken screenshots of them because there was nothing to look at.
The app only shows you the money. The screenshots show you what kind of bettor I am.
Ostrowski said she has filed the return using the sportsbook’s figures. The client has since asked whether the cloud storage for the screenshots is deductible.
