An effort to call a gambling referendum in Texas is underway again, starting in the House of Representatives, where past efforts have found more traction. The Joint Resolution proposed by Rep. Charlie Geren, if approved by legislators and voters, would give the Legislature the power to authorize sports betting and retail casino gambling, with some restrictions. However, it would leave many of the finer details to be ironed out by future legislation.
The Texas Constitution forbids gambling, so directly legislating casinos and sports betting is impossible. The need for an amendment makes the legislative process much more difficult.
A Joint Resolution like Rep. Geren’s needs to pass both chambers of the legislature with a two-thirds majority. That’s possible in the House, as demonstrated by the 2023 sports betting effort, which made it successfully through that chamber. However, it needed bipartisan cooperation to do so. Conversely, the Senate is more steeped in partisanship, with Senate Republicans being reluctant to pass any law that requires assistance from their Democratic peers. There is also increasing pressure for Republican lawmakers to adhere to their party platform, which takes an uncompromising position on gambling issues.
Even with House and Senate approval, Geren’s Resolution would still need to go to Texas voters on the next available ballot, which will be this November.
However, indications are that the Senate will be the biggest obstacle. Polls show public sentiment is in favor of sports betting, Governor Abbott wants to see the public have its say, and there are few competing interests in Texas that would campaign against the ballot measure.
Restrictions on possible Texas gambling laws
Geren’s Joint Resolution has no cosponsors. However, the success of the 2023 sports betting bill in the House suggests that he will have allies from both sides of the aisle.
His proposal doesn’t stipulate many specifics for how and where Texas gambling would take place. However, it does establish guidelines within which any eventual bill must fall. These are:
- Onsite casino gaming at physical premises only—no offsite online casinos allowed.
- A maximum of 10 commercial casino properties.
- Maximum tax rate equal to 15% of gross revenue, and no additional taxes imposed post-launch.
- Requirement for the state to negotiate Class III (full-scale casino) compacts with the Alabama-Coushatta, Kickapoo, and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo tribes.
The three federally-recognized tribes in Texas currently have access only to Class II (bingo-based) gaming. For the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, that right came only recently, in 2022, following a long legal battle with the state.
A guarantee to negotiate Class III gaming would be redundant in other states’ laws, since it’s mandatory under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act once a state has legal commercial casinos. However, a piece of Texas legislation called the Restoration Act complicates matters and is what led to the fight between the state and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo. By explicitly mandating the negotiations in his legislation, Rep. Geren guarantees no repeat of that long and expensive feud.
Tribal casinos wouldn’t require state licenses, so wouldn’t count toward the ten-license cap. Ultimately, then, Texas could see as many as 13 casinos in total—10 commercial and three tribal.
