Democratic Senator Carol Alvarado filed Joint Resolution 16 last month, which proposes an amendment to the state constitution that would allow sports betting and casino gambling at “destination resorts.”
Texas Three-Step
It would take three steps to get sports betting and commercial casino gambling legislation established in Texas. The first step was previously taken in 2023 when the House passed sports betting legislation, but the second step proved to be a bridge too far when the Senate shut it down. Therefore, the third step, a voter referendum to pass the amendment, never came to pass.
Although there have been concerted efforts to bring casino gambling to the Lone Star State by powerful people like Mark Cuban, Miriam Adelson of the Las Vegas Sands, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, it is still considered a remote possibility, at least for this year.
And considering the Texas state legislature meets in odd years, the next opportunity to make gaming happen would be in 2027 if it doesn’t work this time around. Nevertheless, Senator Carol Alvarado has sponsored a bill that would allow commercial casino gambling and sports betting. Whether the latter would include mobile sports betting remains to be seen.
Proposed Locations
Senator Alvarado’s proposal includes commercial gaming in seven Texas locales, including two in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area, two in the Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land section, one in the San Antonio-New Braunfels area, one in the Corpus Christi area, and one in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area. The state would impose a 15% tax on casino gross gaming revenue.
As for mobile sports betting, considering Texas has nearly 29 million people compared to New York’s 19.4 million, and the latter is by far and away the most lucrative sports betting market in the nation, Texas would be a massive coup for sports betting proponents.
Prospects Remain Dim
Despite the nearly $14 million donated to Texas legislators over the first 10 months of 2024 by Las Vegas Sands owner Miriam Adelson, commercial casino gambling and sports betting will be a tough sell to several conservative state senators and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.
“You don’t pass major legislation in a red, conservative state with the Democrats controlling the show, particularly on a major bill like that,” Patrick said during a radio interview in November. “They’ve come in and spent millions and millions of dollars, and they just think that magically it happens. It doesn’t.”
But those who believe Patrick is intractable may be surprised to hear his response to a question regarding sports betting recently.
“When we finished this last session, no one called and said, ‘Oh, you didn’t pass the casino bill. It’s not on anyone’s top 20 list,” Patrick said. “It doesn’t mean there aren’t people who really want it. But like anything else, it really bubbles up from the ground to tell a House member or a Senator that they want this legislation to pass. And that just has not happened.”
Voter Ambivalence
According to Patrick, his reluctance to get behind sports betting in Texas has more to do with voters’ ambivalence than any personal moral prohibition. Nevertheless, there will be more efforts to get some form of gaming passed in Texas this year, and perhaps the pro-gambling forces will overcome the long odds they currently face.
