Poker players are still sweating the gambling tax implications of the Big Beautiful Bill, but a little help from President Donald Trump's friends might go a long way.
Head UFC honcho and noted gambler Dana White wrote a letter to President Trump this week with a request to reverse the tax changes, hoping to revert back to a full deduction of gambling losses. Players now can only deduct up to 90%, which means they could potentially be face tax liabilities even if they lost money.
White, who mentioned that this isn't the first time he's discussed the issue with the President, says the policy is already creating problems.
"The current law makes it irrational to bet in the United States because you could end up owing taxes even when you lose or having a tax bill that exceeds your winnings for the year," White said in the letter.
White outlined impacts on Nevadans, the No Tax on Tips provision, and knock-on effects for businesses like the UFC, who enjoy a great deal of revenue from legal sports gambling.
"When legal betting is discouraged, it hurts the ecosystem we've spent years building in partnership with state regulators and licensed operators."
Gambling legend(s) weigh in
Players levied their reactions to the letter, with Josh Arieh calling either Trump or White a 'Man of the people!' It's not clear exactly which man he meant.
Elsewhere, 17-time WSOP Circuit champ Mike Setera was supportive in his own way, saying "[Please] let this bald degenerate clown's efforts work." Context clues indicate he was talking about White.
Meanwhile, our very own Sam Cosby caught up with gambling legend Billy Baxter at the WSOP Commerce stop in Los Angeles to get his thoughts.
Baxter knows a thing or two about gambling taxes after his battle with the federal government over a $178,000 tax refund. His case, Baxter v. United States, would define the treatment of some gambling winning as taxable income, allowing for the deduction of expenses and losses and other perks of self-employment.
Billy Baxter thinks professional poker is doomed without changes to the tax provisions. "The gambling lobby is so big they should have gotten that fixed right away," Baxter told us. "Evidently they haven't. You can’t pay tax on money you don’t make."
Poker can’t survive, Baxter says, at least not in a professional sense. "They might as well do away with it. You have to lie. Everyone will be in jail. There won’t be any poker players."
But Baxter is 85 now, so he's not up for another fight with the government. "I think I’ll just leave it to someone else to do."
Nevada politicians like Congresswoman Dina Titus and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto also weighed in on the support, thanking White for the effort to help what they're calling a bipartisan effort to make changes to the tax bill.
Prospects for changes remain bearish, but the letter is a good sign that powerful people are still aligned with gamblers to get this done.
