Bad policy didn’t go far enough
Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” (OBBB) signed into law on July 4, 2025, has been largely panned by anyone who doesn’t pray at the altar of Trump. Not everyone was aware of it, of course, because not everyone follows politics. But just days before it passed, the poker world caught wind of a part of the legislation that would hurt professional poker players, sports bettors, and other gamblers: winnings can no longer be completely offset by losses on one’s tax return. Instead, the law now only allows gamblers to offset 90% of their winnings with losses, thus requiring someone with a net loss on the year to still pay taxes on their winnings.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have come together to introduce bills that would restore the previous tax rule. Professional poker players have spoken out against it, some on national news programs. It is widely considered a terrible law.
But at least one group thinks the OBBB didn’t go far enough in hurting poker players. Former Vice President Mike Pence’s conservative think tank, Advancing American Freedom (AAF), has penned a policy memo urging Congress to remove the ability to deduct any gambling losses whatsoever.
Targeting sports betting, specifically, but of course applying to all gambling, the AAF wrote, “Americans have the freedom to gamble on sports, but why should American taxpayers foot the tax bill for sports gambling?”
The bottom line, the AAF says, is that gambling is bad and eliminating any possibility of deducting losses is “pro-growth,” since it will supposedly discourage people from gambling.
Make the pain more painful
To give an example of how this might impact a poker player, we’ll use the AAF’s numbers. According to the group, with the new tax law, someone who wins $100,000 playing poker and loses $100,000 will only by able to offset the $100,000 in income with $90,000 in losses, for a $10,000 net gain. At a 24% tax rate, that person will owe $2,400 in taxes.
What Mike Pence and the AAF want is for the tax code to consider that player to have an income of $100,000, not being allowed to use losses to cancel out any of it. Thus, that person would owe $24,000 in taxes. $24,000 in taxes for someone who had zero net earnings and thus didn’t make money.
Under the previous tax law, the entire $100,000 in losses could be used to offset the $100,000 in winnings. If a person lost more than they won, it will still net out to zero.
The new law from the OBBB and Pence’s idea are all nonsense, of course. Most problem gamblers, the ones who Pence would theoretically be trying to protect, wouldn’t be discouraged from gambling under the AAF’s plan because they don’t struggle with gambling due to low taxes. They aren’t going to see a potential higher tax bill and just decide to stop.
The new tax law is making gamblers pay taxes on non-existent income, and Pence wants to make it much, much worse.
Image credit: Flickr.com / Gage Skidmore
The post Mike Pence’s Conservative Policy Think Tank Wants to Get Rid of Gambling Deductions Completely appeared first on Poker News Daily.
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