There are pretty huge risks financially, attached to the stock market. Do you think that there are more gamblers in the stock market than elsewhere, and do you think perhaps that it meets the gambling urges of people who are not wanting to walk into a casino?

Stocks and casino are two different things. In casino you gamble while in stocks you invest. I play the casino with high hopes of winning a few bucks while in stocks I invests and see that money grow in a period of time.

In a casino you’re betting on a specific outcome based on numbers. In the stock market you have the advantage of checking on the liquidity, equity and available cash levels of an individual company before choosing to invest for dividend return or for quick capital gain (or loss as the case may be).

Anything that involves a risk to your initial stake is gambling, whether in the sharemarket or the casino.  The difference is in the level of education required to be any good at it.  At least the risks in a casino are estimatable given the limits inherent in each game (52 cards in a deck, for instance).  With the sharemarket, the odds are worse given all the variables.

The stock market is a huge gamble right now. Anyone who has any money invested knows this. We’ve lost a ton in the past few months. Our end of the year statements have been showing up in the mail over the last week and…. it’s not good. I wonder if we’d used it to play slots or tables at the casino if we’d made more or at least broken even…

Stock market is a lot better than gambling. Although many connotes stock investment is parallel to gambling relative to its risks as its premise, still, investing is far different from gambling.

I wouldn’t say the stock market is a gamble. Shares are actual portions of ownership of publicly listed companies. If you buy shares without doing any research into the company you’re investing in, then it IS worse than gambling. But if you’re smart and take some time to learn about what you’re investing in, the risk is greatly reduced.

I agree with Luckyme!

Stock Markets can’t be compared with Gambling as

1) If you invest sensibly there are chances that if not at present, your investment would give you handsome returns atleast in future!
2) Whether your income is small or large, you have to pay tax on your income from stock markets while the same is not true about casinos.

I completely agree with puppet. Gambling and Stock Markets can’t be compared. Moreover I loved the the second point about taxes.

I am not much into stock market but from whatever I’ve done till date, I think that both are similar in few parameters and are different in rest of the parameters.

hi,

If you can document other gambling losses, then, to answer your question, you put your gambling winnings on Line 21 of the 1040 and you deduct your gambling losses on the last section of Schedule A.