The effort to push through a measure to restore the 100% gambling loss tax deduction as a fast-tracked amendment to the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has failed, says the proposal’s chief proponent.
Nevada Democrat Rep. Dina Titus posted on social media on Tuesday, Sept. 9 to disclose that the Republican-majority House Rules Committee rejected her proposed add-on to the NDAA, which is a bill passed every fiscal year setting national security and defense policies for the federal government.
Titus’ amendment would have reversed the change made by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that would allow gamblers to deduct only 90% of their gambling losses in any given year. Titus wants to change the Internal Revenue Code by striking ‘”90 percent” and replacing it with “‘100 percent’,” restoring the status quo that has been in place for 70 years.
That language is the same that Titus has put forth in her one-line Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation Act (FAIR BET Act), which she introduced as its own Congressional bill in July, just days after President Donald Trump rubber-stamped the OBBBA. The FAIR BET Act has 10 co-sponsors and bipartisan support.
As co-chair of the Congressional Gaming Caucus, Titus had hoped to force the issue by introducing her NDAA amendment, which she described as “an easy fix” to the issue that has been hot under the spotlight in the gambling industry. A spokesperson for her office told SBC Americas late last month that Titus’ team was “cautiously optimistic” that the amendment would be approved, given that the FAIR BET Act has bipartisan support.
However, Titus’ proposal was not one of the roughly 300 out of more than 1,000 proposed amendments to the national defense bill that were taken up by the committee. Titus vowed to “continue to build support” for restoring the 100% deduction.
The FAIR BET Act is still pending in the House Ways and Means Committee (WAM). At a WAM field hearing in late July, GOP committee chair Rep. Jason Smith said that both sides of the aisle were working to address the issue before the cut to the deduction goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
Smith is one of numerous Republicans who have spoken out to either criticize the OBBBA’s tax deduction change or deny knowledge that it had even happened, saying in the lead-up to the WAM field hearing that it was “a bad decision.”
A GOP version of the measure to restore the 100% deduction was filed by Kentucky Republican Rep. Andy Barr in late July, titled the Winnings and Gains Expense Restoration Act (WAGER Act). That is the third such piece of legislation filed in Congress, after Titus’ FAIR BET Act and Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto‘s Facilitating Unbiased Loss Limitations to Help Our Unique Service Economy Act (FULL HOUSE Act).
Any of those pieces of legislation could potentially be taken up in their respective committees in the coming weeks now that Congress is back in session. Perhaps the Republican-led effort may have the best shot.
