Fair Bet Act

It's a busy time for NTRA President and CEO Tom Rooney as there are some important issues facing horse racing that are being addressed in the nation's capital. Most notably, is the provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill that allows gamblers to deduct only 90 percent of their losses from their winnings. If nothing is done to change that, it will likely have a serious impact on the sport and drive many big bettors out of the game. Bills have been introduced that would allow gamblers to again write...

When the details of Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were introduced, there was an unwelcome surprise for horseplayers as well as all gamblers. It included a provision whereby gamblers could only deduct 90% of their losses from their winnings. For example, if a gambler collected $100,000 in winning bets during a year while also losing $100,000, he or she would have to pay taxes on $10,000, even though no profit was actually made. The new law went into effect on Jan. 1. Unless something changes, when gamblers file their...

After watching a bill she filed last July to restore a gambler's right to deduct 100% of losses from gambling winnings languish without consideration in the House Ways and Means Committee, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada on Thursday initiated a discharge petition in an attempt to bypass committee action and force it to a vote before the full Congress. "My FAIR BET Act has been sitting in @WaysMeansCmte for eight months, despite commitments from @HouseGOP to restore the full gambling loss deduction," Titus wrote Feb. 12 in a posting...

One bill designed to restore the gambling losses tax deduction to 100% is languishing in committee and has, for all intents and purposes, politically flat-lined. The giant tax and spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump in July caps gambling loss deductions to 90% of winnings (from 100%)--a provision set to go into effect next year. Industry leaders have warned this rate change could hit horse racing hard through reduced revenues from gambling dollars. Those jurisdictions with no supplemental purse revenues, like California, are especially vulnerable to the...

Rep. Dina Titus, a Democratic Congresswoman from the gambling mecca of Nevada, has introduced what is being called the FAIR BET Act, which would restore a gambler's right to deduct 100 percent of his or her losses from gambling winnings. Titus is the co-chair of the Congressional Gaming Caucus. The latest version of the Trump bill stunned gamblers, racetracks, casinos and sports bettors when it became clear that a player could only deduct 90% of their losses from the winnings. Under the scenario, a gambler that won $1 million and...