If you are talking about illegal gambling the question would seem a little strange, wouldn't you say? My understanding is that you do pay taxes for gambling winnings. Whether at Atlantic City or Vegas, it's still "gross income!" Section 61 of the IRS code is a pretty famous section which is kind of a catch-all for income which you will pay taxes upon.If somebody won almost 22Gs on football, do they got to pay a income tax on that? Thanks.

Section 61(a) gives a general definition for gross income -- "Except as otherwise provided in this subtitle, gross income means all income from whatever source derived." There are specific definitions but the "all income from whatever source derived" part is designed to try to be a net to try to catch the income from all sources.