Senate OBBBA Includes 10% Tax on Gambling Losses, House Bill Did Not
A provision added in the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act creates a new tax structure for gambling losses that was absent from the House-passed text, raising questions about who...
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now signed into law, contains a provision in Section 70114 that imposes a 10% tax on gambling losses, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of the legislation published June 29, 2026. The provision was not present in the House-passed version of the bill, meaning it was inserted during the Senate reconciliation process.
Under the enacted language of Section 70114, taxpayers who incur gambling losses would face a 10% levy on those losses. The House-passed version of the OBBBA did not include a comparable gambling-loss tax, according to the same Washington Examiner review. The legislative record — including the House-passed text and the enrolled Senate amendments — is publicly available through Congress.gov and would confirm the specific statutory differences between the two versions.
The provision affects any taxpayer who itemizes gambling losses, a category that spans millions of Americans who participate in legal sports betting, casino gaming, and lottery activity. The American Gaming Association reported in its 2025 State of the States publication that legal commercial gaming revenue in the United States exceeded $67 billion in 2024, indicating a large potential taxpayer base that could be subject to the new provision.
No floor debate entry in the Congressional Record reviewed at time of publication specifically addresses the origin or sponsor of the Section 70114 gambling-loss language. The Senate Finance Committee markup records, which are a public document, would identify which senator or staff amendment introduced the provision and at what stage of the reconciliation process it was added.
What remains unknown: It is not yet confirmed whether any member of Congress has formally introduced legislation — sometimes referred to informally as a "Reconciliation 3.0" vehicle — to repeal or modify Section 70114. A search of Congress.gov bill introductions as of June 29, 2026, would reveal any such filing. The Joint Committee on Taxation's revenue score for the gambling-loss provision has not been independently located; that score, if published, would quantify the federal revenue impact and the average tax burden per affected filer.