Nevada’s Titus Continues To Push For Reversal Of Gambling-Loss Reduction At Spirited Hearing

Nevada Rep. Dina Titus said it feels like President Donald Trump’s new tax law is “targeting Southern Nevada” during a House Ways and Means Committee “field hearing” on the new law in Las Vegas Friday.

Billed as a public hearing, the event was held in a more closed setting, and ranking minority committee member Steven Horsford called the event a “photo op.” The Republican-majority committee pre-selected a group of Nevada citizens who would benefit from the tax cuts in the bill to speak. It handed around clipboards for others to submit written comment.

California committee member and Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez asked if the committee would consider a “real discussion and real debate” about the bill, saying, “It’s so partisan, it’s not even f****n’ funny.” He asked the committee if it would consider a bigger, more open hearing, and the response was, “You’re still on the clock, Rep. Gomez.”

While witnesses talked about the advantages of no tax on tips, overtime, and other measures in the bill, and politicians literally pointed fingers, shouted, interrupted witnesses, or pontificated along party lines, Titus’ goal Friday seemed to be to get a commitment from House Republicans to support her bid to eliminate a reduction in the percentage of losses that gamblers will be able to deduct.

Trump’s bill made it so gamblers could deduct 90% rather than 100% of gambling losses, which would translate into some losing bettors paying taxes on losses and some winning bettors’ tax bills exceeding their winnings.

Titus doesn’t mince words

At the start of the hearing, Committee Chair Jason Smith, a Republican, made a point of saying that the reduction was inserted and passed by the Senate, “this didn’t happen in the House, that was the U.S. Senate, and I know that members on both sides of the aisle are open to making changes.”

Titus, a Democrat, seized on Smith’s words, saying she’s “glad to hear the chairman say he would work with us to undo the gambling deductions.” But then she made this pointed comment, making clear the partisan divide in the House:

“And the Senate did pass it, but it had to go back to the House, which did not amend it and passed it. So let’s make sure we know who is responsible for this.”

Titus is not a member of the Ways and Means Committee and she was granted five minutes to speak. She led by pointing to her FAIR Bet Act, which would roll back the gambling-loss deduction. The bill, HR 4304, is succinct, and the relevant eight words read, “by striking ’90 percent’ and inserting ‘100 percent.’”

The bill has been sent to the House Ways and Means Committee, but does not yet have a hearing date.

Titus said the issue elicited 1 million Twitter responses, and she’s “never gone viral before, but this issue did that. And that shows that gamblers aren’t just in Nevada.” She then suggested that if the cut remains in place, consumers may decline to itemize taxes, not report the income, or go offshore.

State senator: Nevadans will suffer

No other participants addressed the issue. The Democrats repeatedly referred to the new law as the the “Big Ugly Bill,” and state Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro testified that the bill would hurt Nevada, and the state may be forced to cut services.

While the no-tax-on-tips and no-tax-on-overtime provisions would benefit Nevadans, particularly in Las Vegas, Cannizzaro pointed out that without visitors, the provisions are moot because employees would be making less money.

“We have a budget and revenues that are highly dependent on sales and use tax, upon gaming revenues … we require for people to come to the state of Nevada and spend their dollars in our tourism economy in order to continue to pay for services for so many Nevadans,” Cannizzaro said. “Unfortunately, when we see things like a significant drop in state revenues like we experienced between December of 2024 and May of 2025 with our economic forecast, our reduction in state funds of more than $350 million … “

Titus jumped in before Cannizzaro finished, pointing to a projected continued drop in tourism numbers as the state has been losing visitors from Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and other international locations. She called it the “perfect storm” and asked Cannizzaro what the state will do.

“We are looking at the implications of not only the policies we have seen implemented just this year that have reduced our general revenues in the state, and to your point, congresswoman, you are correct, a reduction in tourism is hitting our economy hard,” Cannizzaro said. “The state is currently looking, in conjunction with that and the provisions of HR 1 that are devastating to our health-care costs, that are devastating to our food security costs, at things that we are going to have to do fill those holes or cut services.”