Gambling industry again pushing Texas Legislature to approve casinos, online sports betting

Despite defeats in the past two sessions of the Texas Legislature, the Las Vegas Sands casino empire has signed up what the news site called a “murderers’ row of high-powered lobbyists” to convince the Republican-controlled body to allow so-called “destination resort casinos” in big cities.

Additionally, the Texas Sports Betting Alliance — a group that includes sports teams, racetracks and betting platforms such as DraftKings and FanDuel — is pressing lawmakers for loosened restrictions, according to the Tribune.

Gambling interests made some progress last session when a bill to legalize online sports betting won narrow House approval. However, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the conservative Republican who controls the agenda of the Texas Senate, blocked the legislation from debate in the upper chamber, the Tribune reports.

A recent University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs poll found that Texans support both legalized sports gambling and resort destination casinos.

Even so, the deep-pocketed gambling industry still faces strong headwinds from the Texas Republican Party, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and a variety of advocacy groups, according to the Tribune.

Mark Jones, the Rice University political science professor who helped conduct the gambling poll, told the Trib that GOP lawmakers are likely to fear anger from their base if they approve casinos, which are physically present in communities. Those legislators could see approval of online betting as a less risky proposition.

“I think, from a legislator’s perspective, for at least a subset, there was the belief that the blowback for voting for online sports betting is going to be more reduced than the blowback for voting for casinos,” Jones added.

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This article appears in Feb 5-18, 2025.