TUCSON, Ariz. – A bill to roll back a recent change in withholding on gambling winnings that would be highly deleterious to avid gamblers is expected to gain support later this year, according to the head of Thoroughbred racing’s federal lobbying group. Tom Rooney, the chief executive officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and a former congressman, said that the current bill circulating in Congress, which is sponsored by Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr, does not have any organized opposition yet and has support from both Democrats and Republicans in a highly partisan environment. It’s not clear yet, according to Rooney, whether the bill will get a stand-alone vote or be attached to or included in a different bill. While Rooney said that the bill has a lot going for it, he also said that Washington, D.C., remains a very unpredictable place. “We don’t have any opposition, and our support is bipartisan,” Rooney said, during an address at the University of Arizona Global Symposium on Racing on Wednesday morning. “But one of the reasons I’m no longer in Congress is because I got very frustrated that things that should have gotten done did not get done.” The withholding language was placed in the omnibus tax and spending bill passed on a highly partisan basis this summer. Under the language, gamblers would only be able to offset their gambling winnings with 90 percent of their gambling losses, a change that would mean gamblers could pay taxes even though they lost money over the fiscal year. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  The change was greeted with an outcry by professional gamblers and the horseplaying community. Supporters of the change had said that the language could raise as much as $1 billion in revenue, but Rooney said that current lobbying efforts against the language have focused on the contention that most gamblers who would face enormous liability under the change will simply stop gambling. “Everybody [in the racing industry] is affected by this, and we are also saying, if you think you are going to make up $1 billion from that tax, you are not going to get that, and you are probably going to lose everything,” Rooney said. The current bill would make the change retroactive, Rooney said. Rooney also said during his address that a current focus on immigration by the NTRA is centered on the possibility of converting H-2B visas into P visas, which are available to “professionals.” The P visas only need to be renewed every three years, compared to every six months for an H-2B. The racing industry is heavily reliant on the H-2B visa system for backstretch labor. The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration has created widespread fear and concern about the availability of labor, especially in the near future. Immigration reform is notoriously difficult to achieve in Washington, as each side uses the impacts of immigration to score political points against the other, especially in lead-ups to elections. So any reform emanating from Congress remains a longshot, but Rooney said that the conversion effort remains the industry’s best course of action, at least for now. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. HISA searching for alternative sources of revenue Lisa Lazarus, the chief executive officer of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, said in her address to the Symposium that the organization is actively pursuing several efforts to raise outside revenue from its programs in order to lower the financial burden on horsemen and racetracks, which currently provide the vast majority of HISA’s funding. “We’ve got to be able to generate money from outside sources,” Lazarus said. “This has been a huge priority in 2025. . . . We have to find ways to reduce the bill for everyone else.” The financial burdens being created by HISA’s funding has become yet another target for the organization’s critics, many of whom are already chafing under more stringent medication rules and record-keeping requirements, along with general unease over the massive changes that HISA has wrought in the sport’s regulatory environment since its advent in 2022. Earlier this year, HISA changed its funding formula in a way that will likely result in higher fees from mid-tier and lower-tier tracks and their horsemen, in part in response to lawsuits filed by Churchill Downs Inc. and the New York Racing Association. That’s put enormous pressure on HISA to relieve the financial burden to improve its standing among constituencies that are already lined up in opposition over other issues. Following her address, Lazarus said in an interview that HISA’s enormous data-collection efforts could result in the creation of demographic data that would be valuable to insurance companies, which generally base their policies on very limited factors. The sale of that data could be worth $5 million to $7 million a year, Lazarus said. Lazarus also said that the current bill converting H-2B visas to P visas would direct the visa fees to HISA for general funding. Each P visa requires a $500 payment from the holder’s employer every three years, a figure that is roughly a third of the current H-2B visa fee, which is paid every six months. “That’s one where we are reducing the money that trainers have to pay, and then that money comes to us, instead of the government, so I think that’s one that will be heavily supported by the industry,” Lazarus said. In addition, HISA is exploring a partnership with a wearable technology company whose products will be available to horsemen in the future. HISA would get a cut from the company’s premium add-ons, Lazarus said. All told, HISA is looking to be “revenue neutral” to the industry by 2035, Lazarus said during her presentation, through a combination of alternate revenue sources and cost reductions due to economies of scale and improved efficiencies. “We’ve set some very ambitious goals for ourselves,” Lazarus said. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports Also during her address, Lazarus touched on another controversial issue looming for 2026 – the formulation of HISA’s official policy on race-day administrations of Lasix, the diuretic that is used to mitigate bleeding in the lungs. HISA’s enabling legislation requires the organization to issue the policy next year. Several studies looking at the efficacy of Lasix and its impacts on racehorses will be complete by early 2026, Lazarus said. Once the studies are complete, HISA’s Furosemide Advisory Committee will issue a recommendation to the full board, which will then adopt a formal policy. Raceday Lasix is currently banned in 2-year-old races and graded stakes. Many horsemen have always feared that HISA would ultimately ban all raceday Lasix use, under the belief that U.S. racing’s outlier status among nearly all major racing jurisdictions around the world is a threat to the sport’s public perception. Lazarus did not say which way HISA is leaning, but she told the audience that any new policy will not be implemented “the next morning.” “Whatever happens, it will not be abrupt,” Lazarus said. “We are going to follow the steps required in the act and do it in a way that makes sense for the industry.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.