Gambling loss tax change

I often ponder why the tax law makers have to make things so bizarre and difficult. One of these head-scratchers is in the July tax bill just signed, and it relates to tax reporting of gambling winnings and losses.

Under the "old" rule, a gambler can offset their winnings with their losses (if you itemize deductions), but you cannot deduct more then the winnings. At least you can end up with net zero and no tax impact.

Now, starting with 2026, a gambler can only use 90% of their losses against their winnings (and still cannot deduct more than the winnings), creating a possible situation where a taxpayer has more losses than winnings, but ends up with taxable income!

For example, if a gambler has 100,000 in winnings, and 100,000 in losses, he will end up with 10,000 in taxable income even though he/she never received any winnings. Pretty frustrating for the gambler.

Apparently and understandably, this has caused a sort of uproar in the industry, so we tax folks think it is very possible for this provision to be revoked. Whoever made this new rule deserves the drama that it's causing ! Taxes stink in general for people, so at least make them logical...we'll see what happens with this.