Nevada casinos, lawmakers eager to reverse change in gambling tax
deductions
[December 30, 2025] By
MINI RACKER and HOWARD STUTZ/The Nevada Independent
Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel has won 10 World Series of Poker
bracelets while earning tens of millions of dollars in tournaments. But
like many less prominent players, he’s now rethinking his career thanks
to a federal tax change that will soon make gambling less profitable.
“Next year I am kind of forced into retirement,” the longtime Las Vegas
resident told The Nevada Independent. “Everyone who I’ve spoken to plans
on either cutting back or stopping.”
The reason Seidel might have to retire is a tax law change enacted
through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump
in July. Whereas players could previously deduct 100% of their gambling
losses from their winnings for tax purposes, starting in 2026, they will
only be able to deduct 90% of their losses.
That means a player who wins $100,000 and loses $100,000 will only be
able to deduct $90,000 from their winnings, forcing them to pay taxes on
$10,000 of essentially phantom income.
Nevada lawmakers have been fighting to reverse the change since it was
passed. Although they have not yet managed to do so, they believe they
can achieve a fix early in the new year.
On the House side, Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, has led the effort to
restore the 100% loss deduction through her FAIR BET bill. She’s been
struck by the response.
“Turns out, we got a million responses to our tweet when we put it out
there, more than I’ve ever gotten for anything,” she told The Indy in a
recent interview, adding that it isn’t just high-rolling poker pros who
will be hurt by the tax change — it’s also regular guys who bet on
weekend football.
In the upper chamber, Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, and Jacky
Rosen, D-Nevada, have introduced the bipartisan FULL HOUSE bill, which
would accomplish the same thing as Titus’ bill.
“The Republicans’ tax on gamblers is ridiculous and will be bad for
Nevada’s economy,” Cortez Masto spokesperson Lea Hohenlohe wrote in a
statement to The Nevada Independent. She added that the senator is
trying to get the FULL HOUSE bill included in the appropriations package
Congress aims to pass in January.
Fix could come next month
Nevada’s sole Republican in Congress, U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, has
valuable influence in a GOP-controlled House and said he’d been working
alongside Titus to restore the gambling loss deduction.
“We have been assured that when we wrap up this stuff in ’26
appropriations, that fix will be in there,” he told The Nevada
Independent.
Amodei — who chairs an appropriations subcommittee — has talked to House
Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Missouri. After meeting
with gaming CEOs in Las Vegas this summer, Smith pledged to reverse the
tax by the end of the year.
“Jason said that, and that’s great,” Amodei told The Indy this month. “I
saw him in the gym today, and I said, ‘So, when?’ So I’m gonna follow
up.”
Afterward, Smith provided an optimistic statement to The Indy (“I
believe there is a bipartisan path forward to restoring full
deductibility of gambling losses.”) though he did not share a specific
timeline.
Asked what she’d heard about Amodei’s efforts and GOP assurances, Titus
said, “We’re talking to all of them all the time, but you can’t trust
those people. We’ll believe it when it’s signed. So, hopefully that’s
true. And he’s on the committee, he ought to be helping us, helping
Nevada, so let’s hope he’s got an inside with the chairman.”
Does she feel like Amodei has been helpful?
“Well, not yet. But he hasn’t tried to hurt us, let’s put it that way,”
she said.
American Gaming Association CEO Bill Miller said he believes the
deduction will be restored to 100% sometime early in 2026. During a Dec.
12 appearance on the Business of Betting podcast, Miller said he hasn’t
met a member of Congress who is opposed to reversing the change.
“The question is, ‘What are the vehicles to fix this?’” Miller said.
“Trying to get this put back in and fixed is not the easiest trick. But
I believe that we’re going to get it done.”
Miller was in Las Vegas in early December to meet with resort industry
leaders about the ongoing efforts.
Bracing for impact
One gaming source with knowledge of the effort said the timing of the
change is uncertain, but it needs to happen no later than April 2027 for
tax purposes. The deduction change takes effect on Jan. 1 and covers a
gambler’s 2026 wins and losses. But even if Congress manages to change
the law, Nevada’s gambling ecosystem is likely to start feeling its
effects as soon as the new year begins.
“In January, there’s some tournaments here in the U.S., and I think
people are not going to be competing in them, so I think there will be
dealers and more people that will lose jobs,” Seidel said.
Circa Casino Resorts CEO Derek Stevens, who operates three downtown Las
Vegas properties and a sports betting business, said he and other gaming
companies are already being hurt by the legislation. Gamblers, he said,
plan their trips far in advance and are already cutting back on their
2026 budgets because of the potential tax implications.
[to top of second column] |
President Donald Trump holds his signed signature bill of tax breaks
and spending cuts surrounded by members of Congress at the White
House in Washington, on July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree
Nikhinson, File)
 Stevens — whom Titus called the
effort’s “champion” — said there is a “sense of urgency” within the
gaming industry.
“This could be fixed next year. The reality is that it needs to be
done now,” Stevens said. “It’s already impacting wagering that goes
into 2026.”
Stevens said the tax implications could slow Super Bowl betting and
the March Madness NCAA Basketball Tournament, two of the most
heavily wagered annual sports events.
It’s also impacting slot players.
Stevens explained that a Circa slot player might hold back on
wagering because of the lower tax deduction rate. He also worried
that U.S. casino customers in northern states such as New York,
Michigan and Washington might travel to Canadian casinos or gamble
with illegal offshore betting sites to avoid the tax hit.
Stevens explained the situation to Smith earlier this month in Las
Vegas during a meeting arranged by MGM Resorts International CEO
Bill Hornbuckle and attended by top executives at Caesars
Entertainment and Wynn Resorts.
He hoped Smith got the message.
“This is not good for the country, and it’s not good for the
industry,” Stevens said. “It’s not good for tourism, it’s not good
for hospitality, it’s not good for jobs. We know this is an
inadvertent issue that is simply going to hurt everyone in the
United States. It needs to get fixed and corrected soon.”
Why Congress hasn’t nixed the tax change
Nearly six months after the tax change became law, few politicians
have publicly defended the policy, which appeared in the Senate
version of the bill at the eleventh hour.
“Nobody has come out of the weeds and even claimed putting it in, so
my unsolicited speculation is some staff member in the Senate got
pissed about something and slipped it in there,” Amodei said.
The Indy and other outlets previously reported that Finance
Committee Chairman Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, was responsible for
slipping the provision into the bill. The Idaho lawmaker is no
stranger to the Nevada delegation — he along with Nevada’s senators
are cosponsors of the Senate version of Amodei’s Mining Regulatory
Clarity Act. Crapo’s office did not respond to a request for
comment.
According to Titus, Republicans are hesitant to change the
president’s signature policy achievement, especially if doing so
means handing a win to the opposition.
“They are reluctant to open up the Big Bad Beautiful Bill because
they don’t want to challenge the president, and also, they know if
they open it up, other people are gonna have other fixes, too,”
Titus said. “They’ll probably want to help a Republican as opposed
to a bill with my name on it, but we put our stamp on this issue, so
it doesn’t really matter.”
Will Trump do anything about it?
When a reporter asked Trump about scrapping taxes on gambling this
month, the president flirted with the idea.
“We have no tax on tips, we have no tax on Social Security, and we
have no tax on overtime,” Trump replied, smiling to himself. “No tax
on gambling winnings, I don’t know about that, I’m gonna have to
think about that.”
The White House press office did not respond to a request for
comment about any plans to eliminate gambling taxes.
“I know you’re going to be shocked by this, but he didn’t call our
office,” Amodei said. “So who knows?”
Titus suggested gamblers shouldn’t get their hopes up about the
president’s comments.
“I think when they asked him the question, they were referring to
our bill,” Titus said. “But he is not knowledgeable about what goes
on in Congress, and he didn’t know about our bill, so he just popped
off, ‘Yeah, no taxes on gaming.’ … The chances of that passing are
zero. And by then, he may have changed his mind anyway.”
To Seidel, it’s not such a crazy idea. He pointed out that many
countries do not consider gambling winnings taxable income — which
is why it’s notable that many of the most talented poker players in
the world are American.
“If you look at the top performers, most of them are from the U.S.,
and that’s just going to go away,” Seidel said. “If suddenly chess
players couldn’t play us, chess players couldn’t play in
tournaments, or runners or swimmers or anything — it’s so
un-American to not be able to compete.”
Seidel said Titus reached out to talk about the new law and the pair
are scheduled to meet at the beginning of 2026. From his vantage
point, the policy just doesn’t make sense.
“There’s no real benefit to anybody in this tax,” Seidel said. “I
guess politics can be irrational sometimes.”
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This story was originally published by The Nevada Independent and
distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
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