A group of US lawmakers, led by Rep. Dina Titus (R) Nevada, is looking to put an end to a federal betting excise tax on sports betting handle. It’s a bipartisan effort to relieve operators of a .25 percent tax that all US-facing operators pay, but it might not have enough traction to pass through Congress.
Rep.Titus and Rep. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R) Pennsylvania introduced the bill in the House of Representatives, while Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) Nevada and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) Mississippi, introduced a similar bill called Withdrawing Arduous Gaming Excise Rates (WAGER) Act in the US Senate.
This isn’t the first effort at repealing the excise tax, but it is the first effort since regulated sports betting has become commonplace in the United States. Past efforts have met with a tepid response and it’s unclear how much support this bill has today.
None of that history has dampened Cortez Masto’s enthusiasm for providing some tax relief to her state’s number one industry. “Nevada is home to multiple championship-level sports teams, and we know better than anyone that responsible, legal sports betting can be a great revenue source for our local economy. My bipartisan legislation will ensure our sports gaming industry can provide essential tax relief to consumers and our sports gaming industry, creating more jobs and keeping our tax money in the state while cracking down on illegal activities,” she said in a recent press release.
Not surprisingly, the bill is also supported by the American Gaming Association who issued their own statement saying, “The AGA is grateful to Senators Cortez Masto and Hyde-Smith for their commitment to providing a safe, responsible sports betting market and to continuing to help migrate bettors out of the illegal market, which is bereft of consumer protections and a haven for bad actors and tax evaders.”
The bills are now headed to committee where they’ll be evaluated and either sent on for a vote or killed off entirely.