- Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Cindy Hyde-Smith reintroduced legislation to repeal the federal excise tax, calling it outdated.
- The renewed push comes as Nevada sportsbooks continue to pay millions and follows the recent failure of Rep. Dina Titus’ FAIR Bet Act.
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators is once again trying to eliminate a decades-old federal tax on legal sports wagers.
Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) reintroduced the Withdrawing Arduous Gaming Excise Rates (WAGER) Act on Friday. The measure would repeal the 0.25% federal excise tax on all legal sports betting as well as a $50 annual “head” tax per sportsbook employee.
Both taxes were created in 1951 to target illegal gambling operations but remain on the books for legal online sportsbooks and those in person. According to Cortez Masto’s office, Nevada sportsbooks paid nearly $22 million in excise taxes in 2022.
Cortez Masto called the levy “outdated” and said it hurts legitimate businesses at a time when visitation to Las Vegas and Southern Nevada has slowed.
“It’s past time to exempt legal sports betting from outdated taxes that are actually incentivizing illegal sportsbooks,” Cortez Masto said.
Hyde-Smith said removing the tax would give Mississippi sportsbooks and casinos a fairer playing field against offshore sites and prediction market platforms.
The WAGER Act was first introduced in July 2024 but failed to advance. Similar bipartisan legislation has been proposed in the House by Reps. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.).
Related: Titus’ FAIR Bet Act Blocked
The tax debate follows another recent setback for Nevada’s congressional delegation. Earlier this week, the House Rules Committee rejected Rep. Dina Titus’ effort to attach her Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation (FAIR Bet) Act to the annual defense budget.
The proposal would have restored the gambling-loss deduction to 100%. The change reduced the deduction to 90%, which forces gamblers to pay taxes on money they never actually earned.
