Charitable deduction for entry fee

[Skeemo]

A charitable organization is holding a poker tournament. Entrants pay a fee to enter. Only 2 or 3% will end up winning anything. Would any of entry fee be deductible?

Same scenario for Ronald McDonald House selling raffle tickets. Winner gets a house. Any part of cost of raffle ticket deductible by purchaser?

Thanks

[dkss]

no

Neither would qualify as a charitable deduction. But could qualify as gambling loss. See pg 4-15 in deluxe edition

[FEDUKE404]

Most raffle tickets are a non-tax item

Interesting - I have had "raffle tickets can never be deducted as a contribution!!" beaten into my head since shortly after dinosaurs roamed the earth....OK, in reality since I took a Block tax course back when preparers were still running check tapes.

And, of course, you can only use gambling losses to reduce or offset gambling winnings.

I can probably count on one hand the number of Forms W-2G I've encountered with an entry in Box 1, but for folks in other states (NY/FL et al) those documents may be more frequently encountered.

FE

[taxea]

I disagree, the portion of the entry fee that exceeds a usual entry fee for this activity is deductible if it goes to a non-profit organization.taxea

[newbie]

So how would you determine the usual entry for a raffle?

[JG EA]

Pub 17 page 159 under Not deductible "Cost of raffle, bingo, or lottery tickets"

[Davc]

The IRS position on raffle tickets is "Heads we win, Tails you lose". They do not consider the purchase to be a charitable contribution if you lose, but they don't consider wagering if you win for the purpose of deducting wagering losses.