Gambling Industry Sponsors Senators to Push a New Taxing Legislation

Reps. Susie Lee (D), Steven Horsford (D), Mark Amodei (R), and Diana Titus (D), all from Nevada, all rely on the gambling industry to fund their campaigns. The four Congress members are pushing for new legislation on taxing gambling losses, which is a policy the industry has talked about for years.

Gambling Industry Supports Congress Members’ Political Campaigns

This information comes from a recent Washington Examiner review of campaign finance filings. All four of the Congress members have stood behind a legislation that would allow gamblers to deduct 100% of their losses from their tax bills. If accepted, the legislation would reverse a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that limited the deduction to 90%.

The gambling industry has made restoring the full deduction a top priority and has backed supportive lawmakers with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions since 2020. Executives from MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts reportedly met with the American Gaming Association (AGA) in December to push for the tax break.

Lee led in gambling industry donations, receiving nearly $400,000 over the past four election cycles. Amodei followed with more than $300,000, Horsford with almost $300,000, and Titus with roughly $200,000, based on the Washington Examiner review of campaign, victory, and leadership PAC records.

Speaking of Titus, it was she who most recently renewed discussions on the proposal for a 100% tax deduction of losses. She explained that for decades the tax code allowed gamblers to deduct 100% of their losses from their winnings, calling it a commonsense policy. Titus added that people should only be taxed on money they actually earn, not on “phantom” or “ghost” income.

AGA Agrees With These Congress Members

Interestingly, the AGA seems to agree with Titus’s rhetoric on the matter. The so-called “phantom” income describes a situation in which a gambler who breaks even ends up paying taxes. For example, if someone wins $10,000 and loses $10,000 but can only deduct 90% of losses, they would still owe taxes on $1,000 despite having no net gain. 

According to a July 2025 statement from the AGA, the organization was delighted to see that the House-passed bill included a 100% deduction for gambling losses, noting this is a longstanding bipartisan standard confirmed by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, the statement also criticized the Senate’s reduction of the deduction to 90%. AGA said that it established an unfair precedent by imposing taxes on phantom income and disproportionately penalizing a legal, heavily regulated activity, essentially aligning with the opinions of Titus and other Congress members.