A provision buried in Republicans’ reconciliation bill could upend professional gambling, prompting some lawmakers, including some who voted for the bill, to try to undo that piece of President Donald Trump’s signature legislation.
The provision would cut a gambling tax deduction that allows people to offset their gambling losses against their winnings from 100% to 90% — a measure that disproportionately affects professional gamblers.
“While I proudly voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which prevents the largest tax hike in American history, the Senate’s version contained a provision that I strongly disagree with,” Rep. Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican, said in a statement to NOTUS.
His office did not say whether the lawmaker was aware of this provision before voting for the reconciliation bill, but in his statement Nehls went on to call it a “punitive tax on gambling.”
Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat who represents parts of Las Vegas, introduced a bill to repeal the provision. By Tuesday, three House Republicans had co-sponsored the legislation: Nehls, along with Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Mark Amodei of Nevada.
“This anti-gambling provision in the BS Republican budget further screws over folks who live in and visit my district,” Titus said in a statement last week. “This is just another attack on gaming and tourism and on districts like mine that rely on these industries.”
“This also punishes people who are trying to do the right thing by reporting gambling on their taxes,” Titus added.
The provision was not initially included in the reconciliation package passed by the House, but was added in the Senate and ultimately made it into the final version of the bill Trump signed into law.
The Senate Finance Committee did not respond to a request for comment. Speaker Mike Johnson’s office did not respond to an inquiry about whether House leadership plans to advance the bill introduced by Titus.
“I do have some concerns with the new provision capping gambling loss deductions at 90%,” Van Drew, whose district includes Atlantic City, a New Jersey gambling hub, told NOTUS in a statement.
“This provision punishes responsible record-keepers and disproportionately harms professional gamblers, retirees, and middle-income Americans who itemize,” Van Drew’s statement continued. He added that he raised this issue directly to Trump’s office and that the provision “is fundamentally unfair to millions of Americans who follow the law.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and another co-sponsor of Titus’ bill, shared his concerns in an X post about how the measure would hurt professionals.
“Republicans just passed legislation to kneecap sports and gambling in America by limiting the tax dedication on losses- that means that even in years you manage to beat the house, you get shafted,” Khanna wrote. “This is an attack on freedom, fun, and sports.”
The American Gaming Association in May wrote a letter addressed to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee requesting that Congress maintain current deduction levels, among other legislative priorities.
“It is not only critical to maintain this deduction for taxpayers who itemize, but — as a matter of fairness — Congress should consider allowing for non-itemizers to net their gambling wins and losses for purposes of reporting adjusted gross income,” the AGA wrote in the document reviewed by NOTUS.
After Republicans overwhelmingly voted in favor of the reconciliation bill last week, the AGA said in a statement to NOTUS that while it supported most of the economic measures in the bill, it hoped to “work closely with Congress in the coming months to address the changes to wagering deduction losses and further modernize the tax code.”
While some House Republicans joined Titus’s effort to repeal this provision, other members of the party were barely aware of the provision right after the House narrowly passed the piece of legislation.
“I had heard about a provision related to gambling, but at the end of the day, the vast majority of Americans are going to see a massive tax cut,” Rep. Mike Lawler told NOTUS. “I think, on the whole, everybody is going to be very happy.”
Rep. Mike Kelly, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, told NOTUS last week that he did not know about the provision before voting for the bill, but added that such changes were normal to massive reconciliation bills.
“I’m aware of most of it, but I don’t know of anybody who can say they’re aware of every single part of it,” Kelly said about the reconciliation bill. “It’s all math, you see. If you subtract stuff, you’re going to be able to find it somewhere else. At the end of the day, we still need to be able to have enough money.”