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PTPoliticians Join Hands to Take Down Hidden Poker Tax in Trump’s Bill
Summary:
- A new tax rule hidden in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” caps gambling loss deductions at 90%, starting in 2026.
- Both Republicans and Democrats like Ted Cruz and Catherine Cortez Masto are now looking to reverse it.
- Poker pros say the change could drive players out of the country, with Phil Hellmuth dubbing it the “Poker Players Death Tax.”
While controversial topics like gun control and immigration keep dividing lawmakers in Washington, the new tax on poker players is drawing rare bipartisan agreement.
Included in President Donald Trump’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill”, the tax change has stirred a lot of controversy and raised a lot of eyebrows in the gambling world as it could severely impact professional gamblers’ bottom lines starting in 2026.
Sen. Red Cruz: “A Rule That Is Wildly Unfair”
The new rule limits the amount of gambling losses that players can deduct to 90%, from the current 100% mark.
Differently put, a pro poker player who reports $150,000 in winnings and $100,000 in losses would be taxed on $60,000 instead of the actual $50,000 profit. It’s a shift that could cost players thousands and has quickly become a flashpoint in poker circles.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a longtime Trump ally and poker enthusiast, acknowledged the issue on his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz, saying, “nobody saw” the hidden provision when the bill passed.
The One Big Beautiful Bill changed how gambling losses are counted in taxes. And what it did for people like professional poker players is it ended up putting in place a rule that is wildly unfair, that punishes them, that taxes them on income they didn’t earn.
“Poker Players Death Tax”
The change has even caught the attention of poker legend Phil Hellmuth, who dubbed the rule the “Poker Players Death Tax” and has personally urged Cruz to intervene.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats aren’t staying silent. Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto told poker pro Doug Polk on his podcast that the provision is “outrageous”. She added,
I think it caught Republicans off guard. Had we known this was happening, I think we could have stopped it ahead of time.
Now, Cruz is working with an unlikely coalition that includes Cortez Masto, Sen. Jacky Rosen, Rep. Dina Titus, and Republican Sen. Bill Haggerty, in a conjoined effort to undo the tax tweak.
I don’t know that we’ll get it fixed because changing anything in the law is complicated. But it was already passed. It was signed into law at the time I heard about it.
He warned that without changes, the new rule could push professional poker players to leave the U.S. altogether.
