tax gambling question

Daisy, you are getting some good advice and some that may be a bit confusing. You can not claim your loss' unless you use an itemized return. If not you will just have to take the standard deduction and pay the taxes on your winnings.
What you can do is this,
Claim whatever you have won as a donation amount to the RD Kimball foundation. Thus you can remove any tax owed and all contributions are deductible. You can pm me for my mailing address!

No one has mentioned that the casino puts out a summary of your play that you can request. Keep in mind there are NO STANDARDS for these reports and they vary widely in their accuracy. If you present one to the IRS it is one more document that can be used against you. The IRS can "estimate" your winnings if you only present the W2G's. You must show all winnings and lost money.

The best way is to keep a log of your gambling by "session" . The definition of 'session' must be consistent.

Does the IRS even really look twice at the loss figure, don't they kind of know that gamblers, well, gamble and of course there's losses. One doesn't bet five dollars and generaate two W-2's, right? I guess if they were for tremendous amounts, but for a 2 or 4 thou total?