Gamblers Should Pay More Taxes Than Investors: Allison Schrager

At a recent poker game, I sat across from a young man who said he played professionally online. He lost and left early, but not before telling the table how angry he was about a tax increase Congress approved last summer: Going forward, he could write off only 90% of his losses. He got even angrier when I told him this was one of those rare taxes I agreed with.

As he saw it, this was unfair. People can write off all of their business losses, or all of their losses in the stock market, so why shouldn’t he be ...