Tom Rooney, the president and chief executive officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), said Wednesday that the focus of his organization’s current lobbying efforts in Congress is getting a recently enacted tax law reversed so horse race bettors can go back to deducting 100% of their gambling losses instead of the 90% that was imposed by passage of the sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) signed into law July 4.
The NTRA has estimated that the financial hit to the racing industry because of this tax change could be a loss of over $1 billion in handle.
Rooney, speaking during a Dec. 10 presentation at the Global Symposium on Racing hosted by the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program in Tucson, expressed cautious optimism that what amounted to a new tax on horseplayers could be reversed before it goes into effect, even if the change isn’t signed into law until early 2026.
