Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus is making a final push in the lame-duck session to reverse the 90% cap on federal gambling-loss deductions, urging House Republican leaders to attach the FAIR BET Act to must-pass legislation before Congress adjourns for the year. For Las Vegas, the fight is more than a tax dispute: the deduction cap sits at the center of how patrons, high and low, experience the city’s core industry.
In letters to Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Titus asked that the legislation be attached to any major spending or other bills that must clear Congress in the session’s final weeks, as lawmakers returned from recess, as reported by Gambling News and first covered by News 3 Las Vegas. The FAIR BET Act — the Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation Act — would repeal a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July 2025 that cut the share of gambling losses taxpayers may deduct from 100% to 90%.
The mechanics matter for anyone who gambles professionally or recreationally. Under current rules, a bettor who reports $100,000 in winnings and $100,000 in losses still records $10,000 of taxable income, despite breaking even. Before the change, a full loss deduction wiped that liability out. Titus argues the restriction hits professional gamblers and casual bettors alike, and she warns it could push players toward offshore gambling sites with weaker consumer protections — a competitive threat that Nevada regulators and operators have spent decades guarding against.
The congresswoman’s economic argument is pointed for a state where gaming is the largest industry. She contends the cap could reduce domestic tax revenues, discourage investment in the gaming sector and threaten jobs tied to it. Nevada’s resorts employ tens of thousands of workers, and any friction that dampens play on the Strip or downtown ripples through hotel occupancy, entertainment spending and union payroll.
Momentum on the bill has been building. The House Ways and Means Committee approved the FAIR BET Act in September by a vote of 38 to 5, a lopsided margin in a committee that rarely hands out such numbers on tax measures. The path forward, however, still requires a full House vote, and that decision rests with Republican leadership that has not scheduled the bill.
Titus has run this race before. She introduced the legislation in July 2025 immediately after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act moved through Congress, then tried to attach it to the National Defense Authorization Act — an effort blocked by the House Rules Committee. In February 2026 she filed a discharge petition to force a floor vote without committee action, but it fell short of the 218 signatures required.
The political map is now shifting under the issue. Democrats are set to take control of the House in January after winning November’s midterm elections, and Titus has signaled she is prepared to revive the push under the new majority if Republican leaders decline to act this year. That would give the measure a fresh procedural runway, though tax legislation of any kind faces crowded calendars in an election-adjusted session.
Casino operators have largely stayed publicly quiet on the deduction cap, mindful of optics around promoting gambling tax relief, but the industry’s trade groups have flagged the 90% rule as a compliance burden for the accounting systems that track players’ wins and losses. The American Gaming Association has previously warned that the provision could affect customer behavior at a time when Las Vegas is already working to hold visitation steady.
For the city’s hospitality economy, the stakes are straightforward: if the FAIR BET Act clears before year-end, patrons keep a deduction that keeps losing bettors coming back; if it slips to 2027, the cap survives at least one more filing season. Either way, the lame-duck calendar now includes a Nevada tax question that outlasts any single session of Congress.
