Texas sports betting and retail casino expansion could be a long time coming unless the state’s Senate Republicans have a change of heart. That’s according to Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who has indicated that he believes the Senate will not consider gambling expansion in 2025 for reasons of partisan politics.
Texas is the second most populous state that still lacks legal sports betting, with California representing a bigger prize for the industry. Conservative leadership in the Lone Star State has opposed legal sportsbooks, even though at least one opinion poll has shown that the public supports the activity.
Brick-and-mortar casino gambling is almost non-existent as well. There are two tribal casinos in the state, but they’re Class II establishments, only able to offer bingo and related products, though this includes slots-like electronic bingo machines.
In an appearance last week on the WFAA podcast Y’all-tics, Patrick claimed only a tiny handful of Republicans support legal sports betting:
I might have three or four Senators out of 20 Republicans who support it, that’s it.
Members of the Texas State House who favor sports betting and commercial casinos have introduced bills to try to legalize them. One sports betting bill even passed in that chamber of the legislature last year, while a casino bill came close. However, the Senate has staunchly refused to consider either issue. In Patrick’s view, that’s unlikely to change in the near future.
Texas gambling expansion requires a referendum
The Texas House bills would send the issue to voters as a ballot measure to amend the state constitution. That method has support in the House, but so far, not enough TX Senators—specifically, Republicans—have endorsed it. The opposition has germinated in the Republican Party.
A bill that would have allowed casinos in Texas in 2023 was defeated by a mere eight votes in the House.
But Patrick has dismissed efforts in the State House as being unrealistic for the workings of the Senate. The reason, according to Patrick, is that the House is more willing—too willing, in his view—to entertain proposals that are more popular with Democrats than Republicans. In an interview on the WFAA podcast earlier in November, he explained:
They say, ‘Oh, we almost passed [a casino bill] last session.’ You know, they almost passed it with every Democrat voting for it and about one of four Republicans voting for it. We don’t do that in the Senate.
In the Senate, Patrick says, a bill must have strong support from Republicans to get a hearing.
The difference between the Senate and the House is we don’t let the Democrats run the Senate. We know how to work across the aisle without ceding power to the other side to let them run the Senate like [House Speaker] Dade [Phelan] lets Democrats run the House. We’re a Republican state.
Las Vegas Sands pushes for casinos over sportsbooks
If there’s any hope for the retail casino proposal, it’s because an important Republican donor is behind the effort.
Las Vegas Sands, owned by Miriam Adelson, has been angling to make Texas its new home base in the US after withdrawing from the Nevada market. Last year, Adelson bought up land in the state, seemingly with an eye to open as many as five land-based casinos.
Adelson, who is majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was listed by Forbes magazine in 2023 as having a net worth of $32 billion. Like her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, she is prominent in Republican politics, reportedly donating as much as $95 million to a pro-Trump super PAC in the run-up to this year’s election, according to Politico.
Adelson seems to believe that casinos may be more palatable to the Texas conservatives in the State Senate. Sands and the Adelsons have been long-time adversaries of online gambling, which often goes hand in hand with sports betting. Sands sold off its casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, when that state legalized online sports betting and casino gaming. Similarly, the proposal for a Sands Resort in New York may be at risk because the state looks like it may legalize iGaming within the next few years.
The company has deprioritized the US in recent years in order to focus on Macau, where online gambling is illegal. However, that market has problems of its own, thus the desire to find a safe haven in Texas.
If Adelson’s checkbook is important to Republicans in the TX Senate, it could lead to brick-and-mortar casino legislation leapfrogging efforts to pass sports betting.
How Large Could the Texas Sports Betting Market Be?
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Texas’s $2.7 trillion economy is the second-largest by gross domestic product in the US, behind California. It’s expected that legal sports betting in Texas would create one of the largest markets in North America. Several states earn tens of millions in annual tax revenue from sports betting.
