Dana White Presses Trump to Undo Gambling Tax Change

A tax provision buried inside the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act is turning into a growing problem for the legal gambling industry, and now one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies in sports is publicly trying to get it reversed.

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Dana White has sent a letter to Donald Trump urging him to support rolling back the new federal limit on gambling loss deductions, a change that has alarmed professional bettors, casino operators, sportsbooks, and parts of the wider sports business since it quietly became law in 2025.

The issue centers on a change that sounds technical until the math starts landing on taxpayers’ returns.

For years, gamblers in the United States could deduct 100 percent of their losses against their winnings. A bettor who won $500,000 during the year but also lost $500,000 would effectively report no taxable gambling income because there was no actual profit.

Under the revised tax code, only 90 percent of losses can now be deducted.

That leaves some bettors exposed to taxes on income they never truly kept. In certain cases, someone who breaks even over a season — or even loses money overall — could still end up with a federal tax bill. High-volume sports bettors and poker players were among the first groups to sound alarms after the language became law, warning that the structure punishes churn rather than actual earnings.

White’s letter argues the consequences are already spreading beyond individual gamblers.

He described the current setup as economically irrational for Americans who legally wager inside regulated markets, saying the possibility of owing taxes despite net losses changes the basic calculation for bettors. He also pointed to secondary effects in Nevada’s tourism and casino economy, where large gamblers often spend heavily on hospitality, entertainment, and gratuities.

The letter leaned into one of Trump’s own policy themes as well. White argued the deduction limit indirectly weakens the administration’s No Tax on Tips messaging because gamblers facing heavier tax exposure are less likely to tip casino staff generously after major wins.

That argument appears designed as much for politics as policy. Nevada remains one of the most gambling-dependent economies in the country, and hospitality workers form a major part of the state’s workforce.

A Growing Problem for Legal Sportsbooks

The broader gambling industry has been increasingly vocal about the change over the past year, especially as legal sports betting continues expanding state by state across the country.

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Operators spent years lobbying lawmakers to move bettors away from offshore books and illegal local markets into regulated systems that track transactions, monitor integrity risks, and generate tax revenue. Industry executives now worry the federal deduction cap undermines that effort by making legal wagering less attractive for sophisticated or high-frequency bettors.

White echoed those concerns directly in his appeal to Trump.

He argued that regulated sports betting has become deeply integrated into modern professional sports, helping leagues and promotions drive audience engagement, sponsorship revenue, and media value. UFC, like many major sports organizations, has leaned heavily into sportsbook partnerships in recent years as legalized betting spread across the United States following the collapse of the federal PASPA ban in 2018.

The UFC president framed legal betting not simply as gambling but as part of the infrastructure surrounding contemporary sports entertainment. In his view, discouraging regulated wagering creates openings for offshore operators that function outside American oversight and taxation.

That point has become central to the industry’s lobbying effort. Critics of the deduction cap say it unintentionally rewards unregulated markets because offshore sportsbooks do not issue IRS forms or create the same tax complications for bettors.

The political dynamics around the issue are unusual.

White has long been one of Trump’s most loyal allies in sports and entertainment circles, appearing at campaign events and speaking publicly in support of him during multiple election cycles. His involvement gives the tax dispute a much higher profile than it previously had among casual sports fans.

At the same time, the issue cuts across ideological lines. Some conservatives view the deduction limitation as a revenue-generating measure that closes perceived loopholes for professional gamblers, while opponents argue it effectively taxes phantom income and creates distortions that hurt legal businesses.

Congressional pressure to revisit the language has been building quietly since the bill passed, though no major correction has yet moved forward.

White’s intervention may increase that pressure considerably.

His letter presented the issue less as a niche gambling complaint and more as a problem affecting regulated commerce, tourism spending, sports leagues, and American businesses tied to the betting economy. The message underneath it was straightforward: if the government wants bettors inside transparent, taxable legal markets, the tax code cannot punish them for participating there.

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