‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ potentially very bad for poker (players) in the US + STAY ON TOPIC!!

Didn’t democrats control everything from 2008-2024? I know trump won 2016-2020 but not much seemed different in those times?

The only times during this period where Democrats had unified control were 2009-2010 and 2021-2022 (where the Senate was tied).

True, but precedent is that a minimum of one session per gambling day is required, and each tournament (live, at least) counts as a separate session.

Don't forget that the 2017 TCJA eliminated net operating losses (NOL) for professional gamblers. R president, R House, R Senate.

In response to this I think we should all be lobbying our Senators and Representatives to pass a bill completely eliminating taxes on casino gambling winnings. As it is we are already playing with our after taxed income.

That would be a huge boost for the industry and the patrons. The casinos would save millions on the reporting requirements, and you can get paid faster.

This would also put us on par with the UK and probably some other jurisdictions.

I would say most country's dont tax gambling winnings. but most countries also control gambling and take money from the casinos usually for the worse

Right, there are ZERO democrats that are "uber rich" at all.

The dems and republicans are both bought and paid for by the uber rich, they haven't represented the common man for a long time.

There's a reason these politicians spend tens or hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars to get elected to a job that pays a few hundred thousand/year, and it's not because they want to look out for us.

Let's stick to the NVG topic at hand from here out. Other politics discussions are available down the hall.

Now, you're incentivized to make sure sessions are as long as possible with this new tax.

2 players who profited $50k on the year:

Player A had winnings of $70k and losses of $20k, of which he can only count 90% or $18k. Now owes taxes on $52k instead of $50k, not a huge deal.

Player B is a high volume, high buyin live MTT player. He had $5,000,050 in winnings and $5,000,000 in losses, of which he can count only $4,500,000. Now owes taxes on $550k instead of $50k, he's ****ed.

Such an ill conceived bill. If they wanted to slap an extra 10% on gambling profits, ok I could understand that, but they constructed it in a way that makes zero sense.

I agree, but not all states have legal gaming, so this isn't ideal. Does Idaho have legal gambling?

A more simple and effective plan is to vote Democrat. They don't oppose gambling.

In Idaho:
Legalized gambling activities include state-sanctioned events such as pari-mutuel betting, lotteries, and bingo, conducted under strict regulations. Pari-mutuel betting is limited to horse and dog racing.

This bill hardly touches his state. I wonder why he's so concerned about it? ��

Remember what it was like pre Black Friday? Stop voting Republican.

I don't know what the poker economy will do if we lose all the high-stakes GTO misregs

Good luck getting through. This is one of the least popular pieces of passed legislation in the history of polling. The time to fight against something like this was before the election. It's going to be hard to undo now, especially when you're one of the smallest, least powerful, least important constituents hurt by this bill. The increased chances of getting hit with a stray bullet like this by the Trump administration on something nobody was even talking about should have been a good reason for gamblers and other niche group to vote against republicans. But yeah, the guy who goes on rants about windmills causing cancer and doesn't seem smart enough to separate truth from obvious lies and propaganda for some reason signed a bill that arbitrarily hurts a small group with no real benefit to anyone. Who knows why it's in there.... makes about as much sense as talking about Hannibal Lecter all the time in speeches, which he also does.

I posted this a few days ago but guess nobody saw it since the thread is moving so fast. Can anyone tax savvy confirm that playing from abroad should resolve this issue because of the foreign earned income exclusion (assuming you’re making under the threshold - which is currently over 120K)?

I assume that for payroll taxes (fica/ss/medicare) this law will still have an effect, but by doing this would minimize your US tax obligations?

If you reside in the US any money you make or earn is taxable income regardless of whether you make it in Canada or Mexico IIRC.

Playing from abroad or being a fiscal resident in another country...

There must be specific rules for that, also the FEIE can be 240K for couples?

Another question is, if you're American and are a fiscal resident in another country, the FEIE should only work for online poker and live poker outside the US, not playing in the WSOP for example right?

A third order of question, what about foreigners that play in the US, does this new bill have any impact... and for players who reside in countries that have a gambling tax treaty with the US, which is mostly eastern europe, UK, Malta and a couple other countries?

Lots of issues to explore in relation to this

Again, stay on topic in NVG and post your general politics thoughts in the Politics forum.

by Calm Down m

https://itep.org/top-1-to-receive-1-trillion-tax-cut-from-trump-megabill-over-next-decade/

ITEP

Top 1% to Receive $1 Trillion Tax Cut from Trump Megabill Over the Next Decade

Yes, this is such a perfect look into the maga mindset. If you admit you were wrong, you lose, so you have to continue eating **** with a smile on your face until you die.

But did you actually read it? The “current law” they are comparing against is 2017 TCJA expiring at the end of 2025. The OBBB simply extends the current status and rates. That is why I worded my prior question like I did.

The only actual new tax break for the wealth is the increase in SALT deduction.

BTW both sides are playing the same game. GOP says not extending current law is a tax increase but then call this the largest cut ever. So which is it? What is the base line comparison? If not passing is an increase, that means current taxation is baseline. But if passing is a cut, the baseline used would be vs expiredTCJA.

All gets back to policy vs law. Policy is to compare against today. Law compares against hypothetical future state. We live inactual real world of today. In that world, the top 1% will see almost no change in 2026 vs 2025.

Reality is that other than no tax on tips, SS, OT and the SALT cap increase, the other changes are small tweaks to TCJA. But neither side is going to admit that, esp not Trump. He never has small wins. Everything must always be the greatest, biggest, fastest, whatever is his current bombastic hyperbole.

Ofc. The Dems are as bad. Anything GOP esp. Trump does is the worst, most horrible, end of humanity, etc.

No. Ofc OBBB doesn’t change the past. But that was not the question. Let me rephrase. Assume same type and amount of income in 2024 and 2026, how does the top 1% return or marginal rate change? What NEW cut are they getting?

So how does the future change vs 2024?

Hint separately I already gave the answer.

you know, with rake being what it is, with these new Diaper Don mandates/laws... it might be stupid to play online. I don't know how this guy exists.

Hello!

Good evening! Would someone explain how this will effect breakeven or losing poker players?

Obviously, it all depends on how large your total wins and losses are. If your total gross winnings represent a tiny fraction of your overall annual income, this will change your situation only nominally. I have to think this is the vast majority of losing players, but who knows.

Easiest way to know for your own situation is to look at your own previous tax return(s). Take whatever you deducted for gambling losses (Schedule 1, Part 1). Now reduce that number to 90 percent of what it was, see what your new AGI is, then figure out how much it increased your tax liability would have been.

I suggest you get better sources of information. The ones you are currently using are taking advantage of you and feeding you BS.

To be fair, some people are not looking for factual information, they are looking to be told stuff that makes them feel good about their views. The fact that you bring emotions about Trump onto this leads be to believe that you possibly fall into this category.

In that case, carry on using sources that take advantage of you but at least make you feel better about your views.

Probably because it also raises the reporting threshold from $600 to $2000.

Has there been any legit polls showing public support for this bill? I cannot see any reasonable person thinking this bill is great or "WINNING". Looks like it gives some gimicky tax break to a very narrow group of people and increases defecit spending by a couple trillion to go into the pockets of the defense industry. I would assume a lot of people wil be unboarding from the Trump train after this.

The bulk of this bill was simply,y to extend the 2017TCJA. If those were not extended, everyone, except those paying nothing and even many of them, would see a large increase back to preTCJA conditions.

So yes many are very much in favor of this bill. Not passing something to extend those earlier cuts would be a huge painful loss for most.

If TCJA was so horrible, Biden had 4 yrs, some of which he had both houses of legislature, could have undone it. Why didn’t the Dems change it when they had total control? Simple doing so would have been extremely unpopular and would have cost them even more in legislature seats. They LOVE this past so the can run against it knowing it isn’t going away.

I see your issue is probably you really don’t understand the whole bill. You are only thinking in terms of the sound bites. Neither side is giving a complete view of the bills entirety. Each focuses on the parts they can garner more support. If you can find a complete and fair representation of the entirety, you would see the many positives. You see additional negatives also. You might still not favor the bill but at least you would know the good, the bad, and the ugly. You are not going to get that from either party.