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The US House Has Passed Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill: Goodbye, Professional Poker?

The US House Has Passed Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill: Goodbye, Professional Poker?
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Vasilisa Zyryanova Blog Content Editor
  • Fact Checked by: PokerListings
  • Last updated on: July 3, 2025 · 1 minutes to read

On July 3rd, 2025 the House passed OBBBA with a very unpleasant for any gamblers amendment from the Senate. And the poker community is worrying deeply, so PokerListings decided to come clear in details — but let’s be honest, it is really not looking pretty even if new rules will not come into force before 2026.

What Was the Senate’s Amendment?

Amended version of the One Big Beautiful Bill stated for professional gamblers the new route of calculating deductions in the following words: 

In General — For purposes of losses from wagering transactions, the amount allowed as a deduction for any taxable year —

  • (A) shall be equal to 90 percent of the amount of such losses during such taxable year, and
  • (B) shall be allowed only to the extent of the gains from such transactions during such taxable year.

According to Phil Galfond and Matt Glantz, these words mean that having a break even or negative year isn’t something that now saves professional players from paying taxes unless they lose significantly more money than win.

Your taxable base will be calculated by the formula:

X of winnings minus 90% of Y of losses

So, considering this, in the end you may pay more in tax than you win and more than before this bill was passed.

How Senate Want to Tax Poker Players from Now

Let’s look at these changes using a couple of examples, starting from break even year.

  • You win $100,000 and spend $100,000 in buy-ins during the one taxable year.
  • $100,000 – ($100,000 * 0.90) = $100,000 – $90,000 = $10,000.
  • So, you must pay taxes from $10,000 that you literally didn’t earn.

The next example is for a profitable year:

  • You win $100,000 and spend $90,000 in buy-ins during the taxable year.
  • $100,000 – ($90,000 * 0.90) = $100,000 – $81,000 = $19,000.
  • You must pay taxes more than your profit is in this situation.

The last example is for a loss-making year:

  • You win $100,000 and spend $110,000 in buy-ins during the taxable year.
  • $100,000 – ($110,000 * 0.90) = $100,000 – $99.000 = $1,000.
  • You must pay taxes on top of your losses.

Maria Konnikova describes the unfairness of these changes:

Maria Konnikova

“Imagine I have $100,000 in winnings in a year from poker and I played $200,000-worth of tournaments, for a net win of $0. In past years, I’d have zero poker income—no taxes, because I didn’t actually make a cent. Under this bill, my losses are capped at 90%. So, I can only report $90,000 in losses—and I have to pay taxes on a phantom $10,000 that I don’t actually have! I’m being charged a penalty for choosing to play to begin with. This is absolutely bonkers. For someone like me, it means I effectively have to use my earnings as a writer to subsidize playing poker. Instead of an income stream, poker becomes a liability. If the purpose of this bill is to kill poker and stop people from playing, mission accomplished. The provision hurts you whether you have a winning year or a losing year—and the poker ecosystem is unlikely to survive the change.”

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Written By: Vasilisa Zyryanova Blog Content Editor
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