Bill introduced to restore betting tax deductions to 100%

A new bill could pave the way for gambling tax deductions to return to 100% after a change made by the One Big Beautiful Bill

The political world's focus of late has been on the One Big Beautiful Bill, which President Donald Trump signed July 4 after it passed both branches of Congress. There are a lot of different elements and layers covered by the bill, including taxes related to gambling and sports betting.

One aspect of the bill allows Americans to deduct 90% of their gambling losses, down from 100%. Gamblers have been able to deduct gambling losses since 1934 and 100% of gambling losses have been deductible in recent years, but that's set to change starting next year. 

A bill written by Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), who is the Congressional Gaming Caucus, would revert this back to 100%. She recently introduced the Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation, also referred to as the FAIR BET Act. A key aspect of this bill is to restore the gambling loss tax deduction back to 100%.

"The recently passed budget bill included a provision inserted by Senate Republicans without consent of the House that imposed a tax increase on Americans who gamble by reducing from 100 percent to 90 percent the amount of losses they can deduct from gambling winnings for their income taxes," Titus said in a news release. "My FAIR BET Act would rightfully restore the full deduction for losses so gamblers don't pay taxes on money they haven't won."

The Big Beautiful Bill narrowly passed the House 215-214-1, then the Senate 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance the tie-breaking vote, after an amendment process, after which it returned to the House and passed 218-214. Trump then signed the bill into law on July 4.

The next step for the FAIR BET Act is heading to the House Ways and Means Committee.