Sen. Todd Young blocked a bill that proposed to reverse the gambling tax change that was passed as part of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto introduced the Facilitating Unbiased Loss Limitations to Help Our Unique Service Economy (FULL HOUSE) Act last week and wanted it to be fast-tracked. The bill aims to restore the ability of gamblers to deduct 100% of losses from winnings before paying tax on profits.
An amendment to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill included a tax change that will now only allow gamblers to deduct 90% of losses from winnings before paying tax on the difference. As a result, gamblers could pay more tax than they actually win.
Republican Senator Rejects Move To Fast-Track Bill
However, Sen. Young said he would only support accelerating the legislation if it was amended to restore a scratched endowment tax exemption for certain religious institutions.
Cortez Masto refused to add this, so the bill will now have to go through the full legislative process and now heads to the Senate Finance Committee.
Commenting on the block by Republican Young, she said, “I have to say it is a shame that we cannot pass this common-sense fix because Republicans want to weigh it down with unrelated measures that they voted to support.”
Big Beautiful Betrayal
Sen. Jacky Rosen, also of Nevada, spoke out against the move to slow down the bill’s progress. Rosen stated, “I have to say I’m extremely disappointed in what just happened. Senate Republicans are once again showing that they couldn’t care less about the impacts of their new extreme law.”
“Last week, President Trump signed into law Republicans’ disastrous “Big Beautiful Betrayal,” which among all the terrible cuts to health care and food assistance, and all of the rest, the “Big Beautiful Betrayal” included a damaging provision that will impose a higher tax burden for people who play games at casinos, casinos not just in Nevada but all around this country, and lose money.”
Senators Passed Amendment Unknowingly
Cortez Masto went on to add, “Nobody thinks this is a good idea. And I’m not sure many of my Republican colleagues even knew this was in the bill that they passed.”
Some Senators had stated that they were not aware that the change in tax on gamblers had been added to Trump’s huge bill. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas admitted, “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not sure what it does.”
Similarly, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa revealed in an interview, “If you’re asking me how it got in there, no, I don’t know.”
In addition to the FULL HOUSE Act introduced in the Senate, Rep. Dina Titus introduced the FAIR BET Act in the House, which also aims to repeal the change in the gambling tax.
Commenting on the rejection to accelerate the bill in the Senate, Titus posted on X, “The failure of the Senate’s unanimous consent measure is not surprising. The Senate got us into this mess and it’s now time for both chambers to unite behind my bipartisan FAIR BET Act to ensure that average and high-stakes gamblers do not pay taxes on money they never won.”
Sportsbooks Also Oppose Tax Increases
Many professional gamblers spoke out against the change in deductions that gamblers can now make. Similarly, sportsbooks have spoken out against increases in gambling taxes in states across the country.
FanDuel said the continued increase in taxes will make sports betting companies unprofitable if the trend continues. Instead, the betting and gaming platform said states should legalize online casinos to generate more tax funds and reduce the impact of unregulated gambling.
Adam is an experienced writer with years of experience in the gambling industry. He has worked as a content writer and editor for five years on sites such as Oddschecker, CoinTelegraph and Gambling Industry News, bringing excellent knowledge of the world of sports betting and online gambling. Adam focuses on emerging stories in the ever changing landscape of betting in the US. Read the latest on prediction markets, changing legislation, and sweepstakes.
