During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing in July, Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) spoke about a provision in the Big Beautiful Bill which capped tax deductions on gambling tax losses, which is now being reconsidered by many of the Republicans who voted for it.
00:12I'm also really glad, and I'll say this again, to hear that there's support for doing away with the change in the reduced gaming tax, gaming loss deduction.
00:24I appreciate the chairman saying that.
00:26I have the Fair Bet Act.
00:28We have some Republicans already on that bill.
00:31I know Andy Biggs is looking at doing something, and so I look forward to working with you to do that.
00:37You have the Nevada Resorts Association, the entire Nevada delegation, Governor Lombardo, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Las Vegas Sun, the American Gaming Association,
00:48a number of tribes have all come out in support of doing away with that reduced deduction,
00:53not to mention the over 1 million people who responded to our Twitter.
00:58I've never gone viral before, but this issue has actually done that.
01:03So, but that shows you that it's not just a Nevada issue.
01:07People gamble all over the country, and that's true in every state except two, Hawaii and Utah.
01:15So, a lot of people, it's not just your high-end professional poker players.
01:20A lot of people want to play the slots on the weekend or bet on a football game here or there, so it has an impact on them.
01:26And if we don't do away with it, people aren't going to itemize and pay their taxes.
01:30They'll just figure to hell with it, I'm not going to turn this in, or they'll go gamble offshore or in some black market.
01:37So, I think we definitely need to get rid of this.
01:40So, I'm glad that the Republicans have changed their mind from the time that they voted for it to now.
01:45My question, though, and I'd like to address this to Senator Cannizzaro.
01:52You laid out some of the problems that the state's facing, and we're not the only one, once again, facing that.
01:57I came to the state legislature last spring and addressed the legislature and talked about the tsunami
02:03that was coming as a result of this bill and other Republican policies.
02:09All the cuts to state programs from food services or food assistance to Medicaid to maybe Medicare, if we get to that point.
02:20Even down to the Nevada Arts Council.
02:24I mean, we were talking quality of life as livelihood as well as lives.
02:29Now, we have a good rainy day fund.
02:32I mean, the largest we've ever had, thanks to our treasurer,
02:35but that's really not enough to make up for these differences.
02:39So, you laid out all the things that we are going to have to do without.
02:43What's the state going to have to do about it?
02:44Are you going to have to call a special session?
02:47Are you going to have to now raise taxes to provide these services at the state level?
02:53Are you going to have to just cut the services?
02:56And, you know, once people have something, it's very hard for them to deal with having cut that.
03:01No option is a very good option.
03:03So, can you lay out for us what the state is really facing now?
03:09Yes, and thank you for the question, Congresswoman Titus.
03:12So, here in Nevada, we have a budget and revenues that are highly dependent upon sales and use tax, upon gaming revenues.
03:22We require for people to come to the state of Nevada and spend their dollars in our tourism economy
03:27in order to continue to provide services for so many Nevadans.
03:31Unfortunately, when we see things like a significant drop in state revenues,
03:36which we experienced between December of 2024 and May of 2025 with our economic forecast,
03:44a reduction in state funds of more than $350 million.
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