Donald Trump is a man of words – and sometimes action. Well, POTUS delivered his "Big Beautiful Bill" last week, promising to undo much of the previous administration’s supposed economic malfeasance and pass a sweeping law that will make ordinary Americans richer.
Big Beautiful Bill causes a big uproar among
Unless you play poker or like to place a flutter on sports. The new bill wants to do away with, among other things, the ability of sports gamblers and professional poker players to declare their losses as a deductible. Essentially, if you bet $200,000 in total this year, and won $100,000, and lost $100,000 you would not owe any tax under current laws.
The wins and losses effectively nullify themselves. However, the new bill wants to cap the deductibles to 90% of losses, meaning that you would owe tax on 10% of the sum, or in this case - $10,000. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, this small change could bring in an estimated $1.14bn in extra revenue for the coffers, but it has naturally not gone down well with the industry, or punters.
Some were more emotional than others. Sporttrade CEO and founder Alex Kane more so than others, "what the ---- is happening," he asked. Rob Pizzola, a professional gambler, said that the tax was set to hurt everyone who ever places a wager in the United States, with a knock-on impact on the gambling industry as a whole.
Another voice of dissent came from Tony Dunst, who was even more descriptive, using emoticons to convey his disagreement. "Imagine you end up down on the year in gambling AND owe taxes on your play," he stated.
A possible legislative fix is already supposedly on its way
One of the most vociferous critics of the new proposed legislation, which still awaits approval in the House of Representatives, has been Dina Titus, a Democratic congresswoman from Nevada, who pronounced herself against the measure and called on fellow lawmakers to acknowledge that the bill would ultimately hurt ordinary Americans.
Titus, though, is not waiting for help to arrive, as she announced that she has started working on a "fix" that would treat gaming losses more fairly in the tax code.
