Nevada Lawmaker’s FAIR BET Act Clears First Hurdle, Aims to Restore Full Gambling Loss Deduction

After more than a year of push‑and‑pull on Capitol Hill, a bill that would give gamblers back the full tax break they used to enjoy finally slipped out of a committee and landed on the House floor’s agenda. The measure – officially called the FAIR BET Act (Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation) – was championed by Nevada’s own Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat who says the change is “commonsense” and, frankly, overdue.

The legislation slipped through the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, riding piggy‑back on the broader Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act. In plain English, the bill would undo a little‑noticed tweak that was baked into President Donald Trump’s so‑called Big Beautiful Bill back in July 2025. That tweak trimmed the federal deduction for gambling losses from 100 % down to 90 %, meaning players could only offset a fraction of their losing bets against taxable income.

“We’re talking about phantom money here,” Titus said in a press release, waving a copy of the bill. “People who lost money at the tables shouldn’t be taxed on money they never actually won.” She added a hint of frustration, noting the original change felt like a “ruse” hidden inside a massive spending package, and that it had hit both casual slot‑players and professional high‑rollers alike.

To be clear, the current law (pre‑2025) lets taxpayers deduct gambling losses up to the amount of their gambling winnings – a full 100 % offset. The 2025 amendment clipped that to 90 %, a reduction that some tax experts called a “nickel‑and‑diming” of the industry. The FAIR BET Act would simply restore the status quo, allowing anyone who bets and loses to write off the entire loss when filing their federal return.

But clearing the committee is only the first step. The bill still faces an “uphill battle,” as Titus put it, to win a full vote in the House and then cross the Senate’s finish line. Nevada’s Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jackie Rosen, have signed on as co‑sponsors, bolstering the effort with a bit of home‑state firepower.

In a recent town hall at Las Vegas City Hall, Titus urged her colleagues to act before the new year. “We’ve spent 14 months fighting this commonsense fix. Let’s get it done before Jan. 1, 2027,” she told a mixed crowd of casino workers, bettors, and curious onlookers. The audience, a blend of seasoned casino floor veterans and first‑time bettors, seemed to appreciate the chance to hear a policy issue spoken in plain language rather than tax code jargon.

Should the House pass the FAIR BET Act, the next stop would be the Senate, where the measure could encounter either smooth sailing or a new set of partisan roadblocks. If the Senate green‑lights it, the bill would head to the President’s desk – still Donald Trump at the time of writing – for a signature that could finally restore the original tax deduction on Jan. 1, 2027.

For now, the gambling community, from Las Vegas strip operators to online bettors, is watching closely. The outcome could mean a modest, but welcome, cash‑flow boost for anyone who’s ever lost a bet and wondered why the IRS seemed to be counting those losses against them at all.