Though some remain skeptical that Texas will expand casino gambling in the near future — despite significant statewide support for creating destination resorts in the Lone Star State — one key player in the ongoing saga expressed hope it would happen.
In an exclusive interview with the Dallas Morning News, Las Vegas Sands Corp. COO Patrick Dumont touched on the possibility that Sands would eventually be able to build a casino in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
He said:
“We believe very strongly that there’s an opportunity to develop destination resorts in the state of Texas, at some point, over the next years. I don’t know how long it will be; I couldn’t tell you, but I’m hopeful about it. People tell us that they would like to see it happen, which is nice. It feels like we have good support from certain areas.”
‘There might be an opportunity for us’
Dumont, who recently became the new governor for the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA — and aligning with Mark Cuban in the process — shared a vision for a complex that combines a sporting arena with a destination resort.
Cuban has previously said the Adelson-Dumont group could potentially build a resort/arena complex as soon as they’d legally be able to in Texas.
That could theoretically be at a 108-acre site, near the former Texas Stadium in Irving, that Sands purchased last year. But they also could look at a 12-acre parcel across the Stemmons Freeway from the Mavericks’ current home, the American Airlines Center. A company affiliated with Cuban recently sold that plot of land to Sands.
Dumont noted that the combination arena and resort hinges on the Texas Legislature.
“When that does happen, there might be an opportunity for us to build a brand-new arena for the Mavericks as part of an entertainment complex that’s large-scale, in a destination resort, with hotel rooms and space for both business and leisure tourism,” he told the Dallas Morning News.
Look at the Venetian and adjacent Venetian Expo Center as a comparison
The article claimed that Dumont views a potential Dallas-area arena and entertainment complex as similar to the Venetian and Venetian Expo Center in Las Vegas, which both helped raise the city’s profile for tourism and convention visitors.
Dumont said, of that concept:
“There’s a lot of things we can do with the city of Dallas to enhance business-tourism appeal,” Dumont said. “Dallas is a great business city; I don’t have to tell you. There’s so many strong American businesses headquartered there. The opportunity to work with them to facilitate business-to-tourism and business growth, I think, is a unique opportunity.”
He then added:
“We’ll have a business and leisure asset, and the leisure side will be like a Las Vegas-style destination resort with top chefs, dining, culinary nightclubs — all the things that go along with a Vegas leisure experience. And in the city of Dallas, we would do that and then have an arena that ties into that and creates a greater fan experience.
“There’s always a dream that people have, where you can stay in a top-flight hotel room and then go down in an elevator bank, get something to eat and then walk into the arena and it’s all one space. … If we can create a home for the Dallas Mavericks where that’s a possibility, I think that would be pretty good.”
So … when might all this happen?
However, Dumont did float a vague timeline of 10-15 years, which perhaps has more to do with how the Texas political landscape might change than how ready Sands is to build a resort once it can be done.
Cuban has recently weighed in, in his fashion, on such a vision. He recently shared that being able to build a casino affiliated with the Mavericks would put the franchise in “a much better position to compete,” noting that real estate and entertainment are vital verticals for sports teams to enter in the current market.