Vulnerable members of Congress who depend on the playing industry to fund their campaigns are pushing legislation that the industry desires handed, a Washington Examiner evaluate of marketing campaign finance filings has discovered.
Reps. Susie Lee (D), Steven Horsford (D), Mark Amodei (R), and Diana Titus (D) — all from Nevada — have thrown their help behind legislation that might permit gamblers to deduct 100% of losses from their tax payments, revising a provision within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that diminished the deduction to 90% of losses. Restoring the total deduction has been a serious precedence of the playing industry, which has poured a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} into the campaigns of these representatives since 2020.
Lee took probably the most from the playing industry, accepting almost $400,000 over the previous 4 electoral cycles. She was carefully adopted by Amodei, who obtained nicely over $300,000, then by Horsford, who took virtually $300,000, and Titus, who raked in round $200,000, in keeping with a Washington Examiner evaluate of data from the lawmakers’ major marketing campaign accounts, their victory funds, and their management PACs.
Top executives from MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts reportedly met with representatives from the American Gaming Association — the commerce group answerable for representing the pursuits of casinos and different components of the playing industry — in December to drum up help for a gambler’s tax break. Lee, Horsford, Amodei, and Titus, who in the end fulfilled their request, have all accepted giant donations from executives working for the three on line casino operators in addition to the AGA.
Casino executives and PACs representing the three operators that pushed for the legislation contributed roughly $140,000 to Lee, $95,000 to Horsford, $85,000 to Titus, and $83,000 to Amodei since 2020. The AGA, in the meantime, gave Lee $3,000, Titus $5,500, Horsford $6,000, and Amodei $5,000 over the identical interval. Amodei, Horsford, and Lee all signify swing districts, making marketing campaign {dollars} much more worthwhile to them, given the issue of retaining their seats.
“For decades, our tax code has allowed you to deduct 100% of any gaming losses from your winnings,” Titus stated of the change. “It was a commonsense policy. People should only pay tax on money that they actually earn, not phantom money or ghost money.”
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., is working to cross legislation that might give states management over the place a federal nuclear waste repository is positioned. (AP Photo/John Locher) | John Locher
Titus’s rhetoric, and that of others backing the tax change, mirrors that of the AGA.
“We were gratified to see that the House passed bill included the 100% deduction for gambling losses, a 70-year bipartisan principle, that allows gamblers to deduct losses up to their winnings, a standard that was reaffirmed by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” a July 2025 assertion from the AGA reads. “However, because of Senate procedural rules, this provision was changed to allow for only a 90% limitation on gambling loss deductions. The result creates an unfair precedent by taxing phantom income and uniquely penalizing a legal, heavily regulated activity.”
When Titus and the AGA converse of “phantom” revenue, they discuss with a scenario by which a gambler who breaks even really finally ends up shedding cash resulting from taxation. A gambler who wins $10,000 and loses $10,000, however can solely deduct 90% of his losses from his tax invoice, as an example, would find yourself paying taxes on $1,000 though they technically earned nothing.
QATARI FOREIGN AGENTS FREQUENTLY DONATE TO THE CONGRESSIONAL OFFICES THEY LOBBY
American Indian tribes that function casinos, companies that promote playing machines, and particular person casinos have been among the many different organizations slicing checks to the trio of representatives. Some members of Congress who don’t obtain vital monetary help from the playing industry, akin to Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Max Miller (R-OH), have additionally thrown their help behind the legislation.
“When a party single-handedly passes a bill in the middle of the night to give tax breaks to billionaires, mistakes happen. And that’s exactly what happened here,” a spokeswoman for Lee informed the Washington Examiner, in reference to the OBBB Act. “There is widespread bipartisan support to correct this mistake, and Susie is joining her colleagues from across country who are working to right this wrong — as she should. The gaming industry fuels Nevada’s economy, where it employs close to one in three workers and makes up more than a third of our state’s GDP. Susie is committed to fighting for her constituents and the economy that fuels our state.”
The workplaces of Titus, Horsford, and Amodei didn’t reply to requests for remark.
