Legislation To Undo 90% Tax Loss Deduction Rule On The Move In House

Some 14 months after U.S. Rep. Dina Titus introduced the FAIR BET (Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation) Act and eight months after Rep. Steven Horsford introduced the FULL HOUSE (Facilitating Useful Loss Limitations to Help Our Unique Service Economy) Act, the Nevada representatives’ efforts to undo the 90% cap on gambling loss tax deductions are positioned to make progress this week.

Horsford (whose bipartisan bill was introduced in conjunction with controversial Ohio Rep. Max Miller) issued a statement Monday evening, writing, “This week, the Ways and Means Committee will take action on my fix — a major step toward restoring tax fairness and protecting Nevada jobs.”

In a Facebook “Reels” post, Horsford added the detail that the FULL HOUSE Act is scheduled to be marked up in the committee on Wednesday.

Also on Monday evening, Titus tweeted that her “gambling loss tax deduction fix has finally been included in a tax package.”

These two pieces of legislation that are of significance to Nevadans and to gamblers across the country were both written in response to one provision in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that passed in the summer of 2025. That provision reduced the 100% of gambling losses that people could previously deduct on their taxes to 90%, creating a scenario whereby a gambler could finish the year a net loser and still owe money. They could also finish the year a small winner and owe enough in taxes to turn into a net loser.

Or, as Las Vegas-based reporter Scott Roeben phrased it on X, “You can win $100,000, lose $100,000 and end up owing taxes on $10,000 of imaginary winnings. This legislation could help fix the stupid.”

A long wait for action

Last December, Titus was calling on the Ways and Means Committee to act on her legislation before the end of the calendar year, with the hopes that casino and sportsbook customers would know going into 2026 what their tax outlook for the year ahead would be. Nothing happened in December, however, and throughout 2026, sports bettors, poker players, and other gamblers who report wins and losses on their annual tax filings have been in a state of limbo.

Casino Reports interviewed Titus in March and asked her why the FAIR BET Act hadn’t progressed yet and whether there were signs of hope.

“There are signs of hope,” she replied. “We’ve got 24 bipartisan co-sponsors, including Tom Cole from Oklahoma, who chairs the Appropriations Committee. But there are a couple of reasons it hasn’t moved. The leadership doesn’t want to open up the Big Beautiful Bill because who knows where it’ll go then.

“They may be timing it such that they can take credit for it in the next election. You’ve had the chairman [Rep. Jason Smith] of Ways and Means commit, on the record, right in a hearing, that this needs to be fixed. You’ve had members of the Senate say, ‘We didn’t even know that was in there!’ We’ve got some members of the Ways and Means Committee on our list of co-sponsors. So I think it’ll move.

“Who knows where we can end up putting it? We’re looking at every angle. It will be fixed before the end of the year, but it’s better to fix it sooner rather than later, because people are already making plans for where they are going to go for a gambling weekend or what tournaments they might play.”

This week’s news suggests Titus was accurately dialed in on the timing. And what happens this week will determine the accuracy of her prediction that the tax situation “will be fixed before the end of the year.”

Both pieces of legislation under consideration are succinct. The FAIR BET Act reads simply:

Section 165(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, is amended —

(1) by striking “90 percent” and inserting “100 percent”.

And the FULL HOUSE Act states:

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 165(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:

‘‘(d) WAGERING LOSSES.—Losses from wagering transactions shall be allowed only to the extent of the gains from such transactions. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the term ‘losses from wagering transactions’ includes any deduction otherwise allowable under this chapter incurred in carrying on any wagering transaction.’’.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025.

As of Tuesday morning, the listed agenda for Wednesday’s markups in the House Ways and Means Committee did not include either of the gambling tax deduction bills, though those posted agendas do not necessarily include every piece of legislation that will be addressed. If legislation clears the committee, it would still need to be approved by the full House and Senate this fall to take effect.