Appeals. The Seventh Circuit, in the present case, said the issue "has proven to be most difficult and troublesome over the years." 771 F. 2d, at 271. The difficulty has not been ameliorated by the persistent absence of an all-purpose definition, by statute or regulation, of the phrase "trade or business" which so frequently appears in the Code. Of course, this very frequency well may be the explanation for legislative and administrative reluctance to take a position as to one use that might affect, with confusion, so many others.

Be that as it may, this taxpayer's case must be decided and, from what we have outlined above, must be decided in the face of a decisional history that is not positive or even fairly indicative, as we read the cases, of what the result should be. There are, however, some helpful indicators.

If a taxpayer, as Groetzinger is stipulated to have done in 1978, devotes his full-time activity to gambling, and it is his intended livelihood source, it would seem that basic concepts of fairness (if there be much of that in the income tax law) demand that his activity be regarded as a trade or business just as any other readily accepted activity, such as being a retail store proprietor or, to come closer categorically, as being a casino operator or as being an active trader on the exchanges.

It is argued, however, that a full-time gambler is not offering goods or his services, within the line of demarcation that Justice Frankfurter would have drawn in Du Pont. Respondent replies that he indeed is supplying goods and services, not only to himself but, as well, to the gambling market; thus, he says, he comes within the Frankfurter test even if that were to be imposed as the proper measure. "It takes two to gamble." Brief for Respondent 3. Surely, one who clearly satisfies the Frankfurter adumbration usually is in a trade or business. But does it necessarily follow that one who does not satisfy the Frankfurter adumbration is not in a trade or business? One might well feel that a full-time gam

bler ought to qualify as much as a full-time trader," as Justice Brandeis in Snyder implied and as courts have held. The Commissioner, indeed, accepts the trader result. Tr. of Oral Arg. 17. In any event, while the offering of goods and services usually would qualify the activity as a trade or business, this factor, it seems to us, is not an absolute prerequisite.

We are not satisfied that the Frankfurter gloss would add any helpful dimension to the resolution of cases such as this one, or that it provides a "sensible test," as the Commissioner urges. See Brief for Petitioner 36. It might assist now and then, when the answer is obvious and positive, but it surely is capable of breeding litigation over the meaning of "goods," the meaning of "services," or the meaning of "holding one's self out." And we suspect that - apart from gambling-almost every activity would satisfy the gloss." A test that everyone passes is not a test at all. We therefore now formally reject the Frankfurter gloss which the Court has never adopted anyway.

12 "It takes a buyer to make a seller and it takes an opposing gambler to make a bet." Boyle, What is a Trade or Business?, 39 Tax Lawyer 737, 763 (1986).

18 Levin v. United States, 220 Ct. Cl. 197, 205, 597 F. 2d 760, 765 (1979); Commissioner v. Nubar, 185 F. 2d 584, 588 (CA4 1950), cert. denied, 341 U. S. 925 (1951); Fuld v. Commissioner, 139 F. 2d 465, 468-469 (CA2 1943). See also Moller v. United States, 721 F. 2d 810 (CA Fed. 1983), cert. denied, 467 U. S. 1251 (1984); Purvis v. Commissioner, 530 F. 2d 1332, 1334 (CA9 1976).

14 Each of the three cases in conflict with the Seventh Circuit's decision in the present case, see n. 5, supra, was a gambler's case and adopted the Frankfurter gloss. Because the same courts, in cases not involving gamblers, have not referred to the Frankfurter gloss, see Bessenyey v. Commissioner, 379 F. 2d 252 (CA2), cert. denied, 389 U. S. 931 (1967); Gestrich v. Commissioner, 681 F. 2d 805 (CA3 1982), aff'g, without opinion, 74 T. C. 525 (1980), Main Line Distributors, Inc. v. Commissioner, 321 F.2d 562 (CA6 1963), it would appear that these courts in effect were creating a special class of, and with special rules for, the full-time gambler. We find no warrant for this in the Code.

Of course, not every income-producing and profit-making endeavor constitutes a trade or business. The income tax law, almost from the beginning, has distinguished between a business or trade, on the one hand, and "transactions entered into for profit but not connected with . . . business or trade," on the other. See Revenue Act of 1916, §5(a), Fifth, 39 Stat. 759. Congress "distinguished the broad range of income or profit producing activities from those satisfying the narrow category of trade or business." Whipple v. Commissioner, 373 U. S., at 197. We accept the fact that to be engaged in a trade or business, the taxpayer must be involved in the activity with continuity and regularity and that the taxpayer's primary purpose for engaging in the activity must be for income or profit. A sporadic activity, a hobby, or an amusement diversion does not qualify.

It is suggested that we should defer to the position taken by the Commissioner and by the Solicitor General, but, in the absence of guidance, for over several decades now, through the medium of definitive statutes or regulations, we see little reason to do so. We would defer, instead, to the Code's normal focus on what we regard as a common-sense concept of what is a trade or business. Otherwise, as here, in the context of a minimum tax, it is not too extreme to say that the taxpayer is being taxed on his gambling losses, 15 a result distinctly out of line with the Code's focus on income.

We do not overrule or cut back on the Court's holding in Higgins when we conclude that if one's gambling activity is pursued full time, in good faith, and with regularity, to the production of income for a livelihood, and is not a mere hobby, it is a trade or business within the meaning of the statutes with which we are here concerned. Respondent

15 "The more he lost, the more minimum tax he had to pay." Boyle, 39 Tax Lawyer, at 754. The Commissioner concedes that application of the goods-or-services-test here "visits somewhat harsh consequences" on taxpayer Groetzinger, Brief for Petitioner 36, and "points to . . . perhaps unfortunate draftsmanship." Ibid. See also Reply Brief for Petitioner 11.

Constant and largeSkill was required and for a livelihood, though

Groetzinger satisfied that test in 1978. scale effort on his part was made. was applied. He did what he did with a less-than-successful result. This was not a hobby or a passing fancy or an occasional bet for amusement.

We therefore adhere to the general position of the Higgins Court, taken 46 years ago, that resolution of this issue "requires an examination of the facts in each case." 312 U. S., at 217. This may be thought by some to be a less-thansatisfactory solution, for facts vary. See Boyle, What is a Trade or Business?, 39 Tax Lawyer 737, 767 (1986); Note, The Business of Betting: Proposals for Reforming the Taxation of Business Gamblers, 38 Tax Lawyer 759 (1985); Lopez, Defining "Trade or Business" Under the Internal Revenue Code: A Survey of Relevant Cases, 11 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 949 (1984). Cf. Comment, Continuing Vitality of the "Goods or Services" Test, 15 U. Balt. L. Rev. 108 (1985). But the difficulty rests in the Code's wide utilization in various contexts of the term "trade or business," in the absence of an all-purpose definition by statute or regulation, and in our concern that an attempt judicially to formulate and impose a test for all situations would be counterproductive, unhelpful, and even somewhat precarious for the overall integrity of the Code. We leave repair or revision, if any be needed, which we doubt, to the Congress where we feel, at this late date, the ultimate responsibility rests. Cf. Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U. S. 258, 269-285 (1972).16

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.

It is so ordered.

16 It is possible, of course, that our conclusion here may subject the gambler to self-employment tax, see §§ 1401-1403 of the Code, and therefore may not be an unmixed blessing for him. Federal taxes, however, rest where Congress has placed them.

JUSTICE WHITE, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE and JUSTICE SCALIA join, dissenting.

The 1982 amendments to the Tax Code made clear that gambling is not a trade or business. Under those amendments, the alternative minimum tax base equals adjusted gross income reduced by specified amounts, including gambling losses, and increased by items not relevant here. See 26 U. S. C. §§ 55(b), 55(e)(1)(A), 165(d) (1982 ed. and Supp. III).' If full-time gambling were a trade or business, a fulltime gambler's gambling losses would be "deductions attributable to a trade or business carried on by the taxpayer," and hence deductible from gross income in computing adjusted gross income, 26 U. S. C. § 62(1), though only to the extent of gambling winnings, 26 U. S. C. § 165(d). To again subtract gambling losses (to the extent of gambling winnings) from adjusted gross income when computing the alternative minimum tax base would be to give the full-time gambler a double deduction for alternative minimum tax purposes, which was certainly not Congress' intent. Thus, when Con

'All references are to the Code as it stood prior to the 1986 amendments.

'Consider two single individuals filing for the tax year ending December 31, 1986: A has $75,000 in nongambling income, and $75,000 in itemized nongambling deductions; B, a full-time gambler, has $75,000 in gambling winnings, $75,000 in gambling losses, $75,000 in nongambling income, and $75,000 in itemized nongambling deductions. A's gross income and adjusted gross income are both $75,000, and so is his alternative minimum tax base. The alternative minimum tax assessed on A is 20% of the excess of $75,000 over $30,000, see 26 U. S. C. §§ 55(a), 55(f)(1)(B), or $9,000. Assuming that full-time gambling is a trade or business, B has gross income of $150,000, adjusted gross income of $75,000 (because his gambling losses are attributable to a trade or business), and an alternative minimum tax base of zero (because gambling losses are deducted from adjusted gross income in computing the alternative minimum tax base). Thus, if full-time gambling were treated as a trade or business, B's gambling losses would shield him against the $9,000 minimum tax that Congress clearly intended him to pay. "The Code should not be interpreted to allow [a taxpayer] 'the practical equivalent of a double deduction,' Charles Ilfeld Co. v. Her