Listing Gambling Losses as Itemized Deductions: Why is this different?

[Lmn55d]

My brothers,

The recent tax threads have vastly improved my knowledge but I still have one question:

When you file your taxes as a non-professional, you need to add up all your winning sessions and this is your income. Then you add up you losing sessions and make these your itemized deductions, correct?

How is this different than just taking your net gain for the year? People seem to complain about it...is it just more tedious? Or are there other consequences?

I've learned that these deductions aren't eligigble for the 2% AGI deduction so I don't see why this is worse than taking the net. I have heard about some sort of AMT tax?

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?