Question of the Day - 18 October 2025

[Editor's Note: This opinion piece is written by our business blogger David McKee. And of course, his opinions are his own.]

We love a good conspiracy theory, but … this one seems a bit of a stretch. Like COVID, casino executives were likely to have regarded the tax hike as a bad thing, only to embrace it.

The author of this abomination is Mike Crapo, a U.S. senator with a suitably scatological name for authorship of a measure that would flush your dollars down the toilet. The craptacular Crapo hails from Idaho, a state without private-sector casinos. 

While gamblers have been up in arms about Crapo’s tax change, the C-suites have been conspicuously silent, undoubtedly welcoming the shift of onus onto their customers. Not only was their complicity bought with a series of major tax cuts, they’re obviously not eager to take up the cudgels on behalf of the average player. Never have, never will.

However, had the forces of industry been behind the tax increase (for that's what it is), they would have lowered the boom on Nevada’s congressional delegation. Not only is it unanimously against Crapo’s provision, both Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Dina Titus have introduced legislation to claw it back. Being major sources of Nevada campaign cash, the industry is in an excellent position to call off the dogs. So far it hasn't, at least as far as circumstantial evidence indicates.

That doesn’t mean the industry isn’t rubbing its hands together with glee. Higher taxes are going to come out of your pockets, not theirs. And they certainly won't take a stance on the issue, since the gambling industry is a favorite Capitol Hill whipping boy. No, they lucked out on this one. The industry will leave it to players and their outnumbered Washington, D.C., allies to duke it out in Congress. 

Titus’ amendment to append her FAIR Bet Act (restoring the previous state of taxation affairs) failed in the House Rules Committee 9-4. The lopsidedness of that vote makes us very pessimistic that anyone in our nation's capital, along with the casino bosses, will do players a solid.