House Ways And Means Voted To Repeal The Gambling Tax. Five Members Voted No.

Daily Brief  ·  09/19/26  ·  The Ninety Percent Edition  ·  Published

House Ways And Means Voted To Repeal The Gambling Tax. Five Members Voted No.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 38 to 5 to advance HR 6985, the FULL HOUSE Act, which strips out the provision capping gambling loss deductions at 90 percent. That cap took effect on January 1 and can leave a player who finished even owing tax anyway. The bill now goes to the full House.

Fourteen Months, One Committee Vote

Bill sponsor Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada said the tax puts at risk the livelihoods of dealers, housekeepers, restaurant workers and small business owners in a state that depends on visitors. All five no votes came from Democrats. The bill moves next to a full House vote and then to the Senate. Dina Titus has pushed the same repeal through her FAIR BET Act for more than a year and attached it to a tax package this week. Titus said the fix had finally passed out of committee after fourteen months of uncertainty.

The Gap Between 100 and 90

Fourteen months is a long run for a rule whose entire substance is the gap between 100 and 90. Erik Seidel announced in April that he was playing a reduced schedule because of it. Daniel Negreanu laid out the arithmetic in public: bet a thousand and lose, bet another thousand and win, finish level, pay tax. What the vote does not do is change the law. Titus has watched this same repeal fall out of a defense bill in 2025 and out of a spending bill in January, and a committee vote is three steps short of the President's desk. It is, however, the first time in fourteen months that anyone has had to go on record about it.

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In the Spotlight

Britain Took The Online Casino Tax To 40 Percent. Entain Cut 400 More Jobs.

What happened

Entain, which owns partypoker and Ladbrokes and half of BetMGM, is eliminating 400 jobs after a previous round of 500, and said around 1,000 of its betting shops in the United Kingdom could close. The British government raised the tax rate on online casino operators from 21 percent to 40 percent in April, and the rate on online sports betting rises from 15 percent to 25 percent in April 2027.

Chief executive Stella David said the new taxes could add £100 million to the company's bill. She also cited EY modelling indicating that a 40 percent rate could produce up to 1,470 betting shop closures and 15,900 job losses, and a net loss to the Exchequer of around £120 million.

Why it matters

In the same week a US committee voted to hand money back to players, on the theory that taxing a loss shrinks the activity, Britain is running the experiment in the other direction. It is publishing the job numbers as it goes.

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The Explainer

A Court Ruled Gary Benson Cannot Collect The Debt Because He Was The Bookmaker

What happened

The Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney dismissed Gary Benson's claim to recover almost A$50,000 from fellow poker player Michael O'Grady and ordered Benson to pay legal costs. Judge Scott Nash found that a ledger recording 211 betting transactions between May 2022 and February 2023, with agreed odds, a running balance and credit extended to O'Grady, amounted to acting as a bookmaker. Benson was unlicensed, and the New South Wales Unlawful Gambling Act 1998 makes a debt from unlicensed bookmaking unenforceable.

Benson had already won a judgment over the same debt in July 2023 for A$45,035.94, then surrendered his enforcement rights under a later agreement for A$48,711.84 that O'Grady was to pay out of future tournament winnings.

Why it matters

The ruling is not about whether either man behaved well. It is about volume. A private arrangement between two people who know each other becomes, at some number of transactions the parties are not counting, a business the state licenses.

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Follow the Money

Aaron Pinson Pulled $150,000 In Bounties Out Of A $500,000 Prize Pool

What happened

Aaron Pinson won the $2,200 Big Big Borgata Mystery Bounty in Atlantic City and left with $199,825, close to 40 percent of the event's $500,000 prize pool. The tournament guaranteed two $50,000 bounties and two $25,000 bounties, and Pinson drew both $50,000 slips, for $150,000 in bounties. He and Matt Glantz chopped the remaining prize money heads up and flipped for the trophy, which Pinson won.

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The Circuit

Benjamin Hammann Beat 827 Entries In Liechtenstein And Closed It With Six-Four

What happened

Corrected on September 21: this result was played in March 2026, not in the week this brief covers. Benjamin Hammann won the CHF1,500 main event at the WSOP Circuit stop at Grand Casino Liechtenstein in Gamprin on March 10, 2026, taking a ring and CHF190,392 from a field of 827 entries. The last hand landed in level 33, with the ante grown to the size of the big blind. Hammann finished it holding the six and four of clubs.

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Beyond the Felt

Three More Players Passed $30 Million On Triton. Ponakovs Is $135,171 Short.

What happened

Daniel Dvoress, Danny Tang and Punnat Punsri each passed $30 million in career Triton Poker earnings, taking the tour's $30 million club from four members to seven. Dvoress moved to $34,821,982 and fourth on the all time list, Tang to $32,298,454 in sixth and Punsri to $30,016,130 in seventh. Bryn Kenney still leads on $51,314,802. Aleksejs Ponakovs is eighth on $29,864,829, which leaves him $135,171 outside the club.

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Also Filed

WPT Prime Australia's Day 1a Top Ten Was Ten Australians

What happened

The AUD 1,500 WPT Prime Championship opened at The Star Sydney with 235 entries in Day 1a, and every one of the ten players in the reported top ten chip counts was Australian. Travis O'Grady bagged the lead on 717,000, with Kenta Ito on 674,000 and Adam Kharman on 601,000. Thirty-two players advanced to Day 2 after 16 levels of 40 minutes from a 40,000 starting stack. Three starting flights remain.

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One More Thing

Johannes Straver Won Super Tuesday Twice. The Bigger Field Paid Less.

What happened

Johannes "Jepser8" Straver won WCOOP 49-H, the $5,200 Super Tuesday High Roller on PokerStars, for $90,420, beating Guillaume "Nolet20" Nolet heads up out of a 67-player field. He had won the same event a week earlier for $106,622 out of a 23-player field. Elsewhere, Joao "Naza114" Vieira took his 14th WCOOP title in the $1,050 World Championship of PLO8 for $27,202, and Renan "Internett93o" Bruschi won his 11th in the $1,050 NL 2-7 Single Draw for $16,715.

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