A pair of U.S. senators have reintroduced a bill that aims to repeal the longstanding federal excise tax on sportsbooks’ handle.
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Cindy Hyde-Smith re-filed the bipartisan Withdrawing Arduous Gaming Excise Rates Act (WAGER Act) on Thursday, Sept. 11. The bill would exempt regulated sports betting operators from the current 0.25% tax that is placed on all legal wagers at the federal level.
The two lawmakers filed the same effort in summer 2024, but the bill did not make it over the line. Its reintroduction means there is now an effort to repeal it in both chambers of Congress, as Congressional Gaming Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Dina Titus and Guy Reschenthaler brought a similar bill before the Senate back in February.
In a statement posted on Friday, Sept. 12, Cortez Masto and Hyde-Smith said that removing the excise rate would protect legal sportsbooks and gaming businesses and help states like Nevada and tribal communities reinvest their gaming revenues into their local economies.
“It’s past time to exempt legal sports betting from outdated taxes that are actually incentivizing illegal sportsbooks,” said Nevada Democrat Cortez Masto. “This is bipartisan, commonsense legislation that will help boost local economies across the United States.”
Prediction markets pose new challenge
Mississippi Republican Hyde-Smith referenced the new challenge posed to legal sportsbooks by prediction markets, suggesting that the “outdated” federal tax gives illegal offshore operators and event contracts markets “an unfair edge” over traditional casinos.
“For too long, this outdated federal tax on sports betting has held this industry back, all while giving illegal offshore operators, and now new out-of-state run prediction markets, an unfair edge against our more traditional casinos in Mississippi and elsewhere,” she added.
The lawmakers stated that Nevada alone paid nearly $22 million in handle taxes in 2022, an amount that has nearly doubled since 2019. Cortez Masto added that given the decline in visitation to Las Vegas in 2025, now is the ideal time to provide this tax relief.
The American Gaming Association (AGA) posted on social media to support the measure that it said would abolish a “punitive” tax.
Cortez Masto also looks to reverse tax deduction cut
Cortez Masto is also the sponsor of one of three separate bills that have been lodged in Congress attempting to reverse the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s (OBBBA) cut to the amount that gamblers can deduct on their taxes.
Her Facilitating Unbiased Loss Limitations to Help Our Unique Service Economy Act (FULL HOUSE Act) would restore the 100% tax deduction on gambling losses, which was cut to 90% this year. Cortez Masto attempted to fast-track that bill in July, but her effort to get it passed via unanimous consent failed when a Republican senator from Indiana spoke up to object.
Titus’ Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation Act (FAIR BET Act) is another of the measures aiming to restore the 100% deduction, although she also failed to get it in the express lane via a proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
We’re seeing double WAGERs
A third attempt to undo that OBBBA change may cause some confusion in both the gambling industry and Congress, given that a GOP bill addressing the gambling deduction reduction filed by Republican Rep. Andy Barr, also carries the acronym of the WAGER Act.
His bill’s full title is the Winnings and Gains Expense Restoration Act.
