The Big Beautiful Betrayal: How Pros Just Got Screwed
Published on July 3rd, 2025 11:15 am ESTWritten By: Dave Manuel
Professional gamblers are about to get crushed. The Big Beautiful Bill changes everything. One key tweak: gambling losses can only be deducted up to 90% of winnings. That sounds small. It's not. It's massive.Win $100K. Lose $100K. Under current rules? Pay zero. Under this bill? You owe tax on $10K. Tax on money you never made.
Now zoom out. Professionals play volume. Thousands of bets. Small edge. Big swings. They rely on full deductions. This change wipes that out. Turns breakeven into disaster. Turns skill into a penalty.
It doesn't stop there. Poker players are exposed. Long stretches of up-and-down. One hot score. Ten cold runs. Now taxed as if they only win. That's not sustainable. That's not survivable.
This hits poker. DFS. Sports betting. Horse racing. It hits everyone who plays to win. Not just luck-chasers. Not just weekend warriors. But the grinders. The pros. The ones who fuel the ecosystem.
They don't just bet. They create markets. They tighten lines. They build liquidity. You take them out? Markets get softer. Edges vanish. Prize pools shrink. Books lose depth. Everyone suffers.
States lose too. These players file taxes. They contribute. Force them offshore? That money disappears. That action vanishes. Unregulated books thrive. Regulated markets bleed.
And here's the kicker. The Joint Committee says this raises over a billion in revenue. Guess who pays it? Not billionaires. Not hedge funds. Professional gamblers. That's the target.
The bill pretends to clean up the tax code. But this piece? It's a kill shot. It's not reform. It's destruction. A tax on phantom income. A wrecking ball aimed at the industry's core.
If it passes, the damage starts in 2026. But the impact is already here. Pros are panicking. Operators are worried. Lawmakers are waking up. Too late?
This isn't a side effect. This is the point. And if it holds, the sharp edge of the gambling world gets dulled - for good.
