Even if they break even or lose money overall for the 2026 tax year, gamblers would be required to pay taxes on a portion of their wins under new tax legislation that entered into effect on January 1, 2026.
President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” reduced the maximum deduction for gambling losses to 90%. In the past, gamblers only had to pay taxes on their net gains because they could deduct 100% of their losses up to the amount of their wins.
Now, if an online casino player wins $5,000 in 2026 and also loses $5,000, they can only deduct $4,500 (90% of $5,000) from their winnings for tax purposes. They will have to pay taxes on the remaining $500 in winnings, even though they broke even on their gambling for the year.
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Even if that same player lost more than they won, they will still owe some taxes. For example, if they lost $5,200 and had net losses of $200, they could only deduct $4,680 from their winnings. That means they would still owe taxes on $320 of winnings. Depending on their tax bracket, that could be about $70 owed in taxes, on top of the $200 they lost.
Reversing Trump’s gaming taxes is a stalled proposal.
Nevada Representative Dina Titus and twenty-two of her colleagues concur that the new gambling tax policy is unjust. Titus proposed the FAIR BET Act to return the 90% maximum to 100% shortly after the OBBB was enacted.
Since then, Titus has gathered 22 bipartisan co-sponsors for the bill, which is presently being considered by the House Ways and Means Committee. Despite Titus’s best efforts, the bill was not introduced to the legislative schedule by the end of 2025.
Courtesy:Â https://www.covers.com, https://www.casino.org, https://pechanga.net
