Nevada Congresswoman speaks on gambling as now a national interest

After being unanimously elected as co-chair of the Congressional Gaming Caucus in 2020, Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., has watched the halls of the United States Capitol change their tune on the gaming industry.

Gaming’s perception is “certainly very different coming out of Covid,” she said. “It translates into jobs, and it translates into tax revenue … So as people began to realize what gaming can contribute, then (policymakers looked) at it a different way.”

Titus gave an update on gambling’s place in Washington with Chris Cylke, the American Gaming Association’s senior vice president of government relations, today at the Global Gaming Expo.

Americans, and their lawmakers, are increasingly having a more positive perception of the gaming industry, she said today at the Global Gaming Expo. The American Gaming Association found that 90% of Americans found “casino gambling to be acceptable for themselves or others.”

With sports betting legalized in 38 states and most states having a casino, Titus said gaming has gone from a niche Nevada-centric issue to something cared about nationally.

In Washington, Titus said it’s the caucus’s job to educate members of Congress on the industry’s complicated regulations and benefits.

“This source of revenue for state and local government, and here in Nevada for education, is certainly critical,” she said. “If it’s not coming in, you’re gonna have to look at raising taxes or cutting services and nobody really wants to do that.”

Titus criticized SAFE Bet Act, legislation proposed by Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., that calls for banning sports betting ads from airing during games. It also included federal minimum standards for the increasingly popular form of gambling.

“If you do away with advertising, again, that hurts the legal betting people,” Titus told the Sun, adding that “there’s already so much money that goes into fighting addiction at every state level … so let’s be sure that funding is being used first before we put another level on there.”

Blumenthal and Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., also introduced the GRIT Act, which would allocate 50% of federal sports excise tax revenue to fighting gambling addiction. 

Titus also wants to continue her push to remove the quarter percent federal excise tax on sports wagers.

“It was created at first to go after illegal betting, but then that just didn’t really happen,” she said. “We called up the IRS and said, ‘Well, how much money comes from this tax?’”

“(They) couldn’t even find the money so we thought, ‘Well, what’s the point of giving them the money if they’re not using it?’” Titus said.

She’s also looking to raise the reporting threshold for slot machines from $1,200 to $5,000. 

The Congresswoman argued that the threshold hasn’t kept up with inflation and that every time a machine hits the $1,200 amount, it must be temporarily taken offline. Under the bill, the threshold would also move with inflation.

“Maybe it won’t go through legislation. Maybe we’ll go through regulation,” Titus said, “but a rose by any other name, so we’ll keep working on that.”