Former VP Mike Pence No Fan of Gambling Loss Tax Deductions

• Former Vice President Mike Pence’s conservative, nonprofit foundation is hoping to block bills to restore gambling tax loss deductions
• Advancing American Freedom believes many Americans will stop gambling if they cannot deduct losses
• Believes gambling losses should not be able to be deducted at all

Former Vice President Mike Pence and his conservative, nonprofit foundation Advancing American Freedom is publicly stumping to block bills to restore a professional gambler’s ability to deduct 100% of losses on their taxes.

The conservative foundation published a memo urging Congress to reject any bills to restore the tax code that allows professional gambler’s to deduct 100% of their losses, which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act recently reduced to just 90% of losses.

Furthermore, the foundation is urging Congress to change the code to not allow any gambling losses to be deducted from taxes.

Encouraging People to Gamble?

According to the foundation, until the recent approval of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, America’s tax code “actively encouraged gambling by offering full expensing for gambling losses.”

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act amended the country’s tax code to only allow professional gamblers to deduct 90% of their losses in a year, down from 100%. Since the bill’s approval, three separate pieces of legislation have been introduced to restore the full deduction amount for gambling losses.

Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) introduced the FAIR BET Act last month, which will restore a professional gamblers’ ability to deduct 100% of gambling losses from their taxes.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) also introduced the Facilitating Unbiased Loss Limitations to Help Our Unique Service Economy (FULL HOUSE) Act last month, while Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) filed HR 4630 as well. Both pieces of legislation hope to roll back the limit on gambling deductions.

“Americans have the freedom to gamble on sports, but why would American taxpayers foot the tax bill for sports gambling? Nearly all gamblers lose money, leading to further financial, health, and family problems. Congress should encourage a pro-growth tax code by declining to reinstate full expensing for gambling losses. Legalized sports gambling ultimately makes like more difficult for many Americans while funding growth of government,” Advancing American Freedom wrote in its memo.

Support to Roll Back Tax Change Growing

Despite the foundation’s efforts to block the rollback, there seems to be mounting support to restore the 100% gambling loss deduction wrinkle in the U.S. tax codes.

Titus’s FAIR BET Act has 10 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisles. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), Rep. Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ), Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV), Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL), and Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) have all come out in support of the legislation.

Also, the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee seems open to finding a solution to the problem. While presenting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to the public, Chairman Rep. Jason Smith (MO-R) said he is open to finding a solution to the gambling tax deduction problem.

“For those of you concerned about this change, members on both sides of the aisle have heard you and many members on both sides of the aisle are working to address it before it goes into effect on Jan. 1,” he said.