Texas did not legalize sports betting in 2024. See how the industry is working to change that in 2025.
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Texas ended 2024 with a declining number of states without legal sports betting. A legalization effort failed in 2023 and Congress did not meet in 2024, leaving little movement to break prohibition.
Still, proponents are preparing for a further legalization push in 2025. Part of its foundation was laid in 2024.
Sports Betting: Highlights of 2024
March 6: Despite falling short on legislation in 2023, BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt says Texas still has a good chance of approving sports betting, especially compared to California. I reaffirmed that I believed it.
March 29: Months after acquiring the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban, Miriam Adelson of the Las Vegas Sands files a petition to bring a casino to the Dallas-Ft. . Great metropolitan area. The effort paralleled efforts backed by Cuban and other prominent Texans to bring legal sportsbooks to the state.
May 3: DraftKings CEO and founder Jason Robbins joins a chorus of major sportsbook operators planning to help push sports betting in Texas in 2025. DraftKings has posted a job opening for an Austin-based lobbyist later this year.
June 19: The Dallas Cowboys signed an agreement with Aristocrat Gaming, one of the nation’s leading slot technology providers. The Cowboys had a pre-contract agreement with WinStar Casino in Oklahoma, located along the Texas border.
Oct. 9: Sands lobbyists say in their harshest words yet that casino gambling in Texas is “inevitable” in the Lone Star State, whether in 2025 or in the next few years. He declared that the long-standing ban on gambling would come to an end.
October 17: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reiterates his support for legal sports betting in Texas.
Nov. 6: Hopes for legal gambling could take a hit when Republican Adam Hinojosa defeats Democratic incumbent Morgan LaMantia to win a state Senate seat. Hinojosa did not directly state his position on gambling during the campaign, but he is running as a Christian conservative and is likely to join a bloc of Republican colleagues opposed to expanding gambling.
November 13: Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie tells Covers that he expects Texas to legalize sports betting in 2025.
November 20: A study by gaming industry research firm Eilers & Krejcik finds that if Texas legalized sports betting, it would generate $360 million in annual tax revenue, $24.3 million in non-gaming taxes, and 8,000 new jobs. The overall economic impact is projected to be $2.6 billion.
Dec. 13: Ahead of the 2025 legislative session, state Sen. Carol Alvarado introduces a bill that would allow Texas voters to approve casino gambling and sports betting on the 2026 ballot.
Sports Betting: Current Status
A flurry of support for legal sports betting by industry, politicians and lobbying groups in 2024 defies persistent political difficulties in bringing sports betting (or any form of betting) to the Lone Star State.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who runs the day-to-day operations of the state Senate through his role, said he would not take up gambling legislation without support from a majority of the Republican caucus. More than half of the caucus openly opposes gambling, making this a difficult challenge.
A gambling bill that includes sports betting authorization passed the state Legislature last session with broad bipartisan support. But obstacles in the Senate pushed the House back from making a similar push in 2025.
Sports Betting: What’s Next?
Adelson and other sports betting officials plan to hold a full-court press conference at the state Capitol in 2025, but they are unlikely to be able to overcome conservative opposition.
Supporters argue that approving sports betting through a voting system would insulate politicians from voter backlash against supporting gambling. Industry officials in other statehouses say the risks are minimal, and surveys show Texans are largely supportive of gambling.
👀👀 Gambling in Texas is not a matter of when, Caesars New Orleans GM Samir Mowad said today during a Congressional hearing on Louisiana’s sports betting tax increase bill. Louisiana will be one of the states most affected by Texas’ legalization of casinos and sports betting
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) November 13, 2024
But that doesn’t seem to be enough to reverse decades of Republican hostility to regulated gambling. Progress could be made in Austin this year, but advocates may have to wait until at least the 2027 Legislature and/or major political changes in the state Senate to see concrete progress. do not have.
Sports Betting: Notes and Quotes
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For example, the people who think Texas doesn’t support legal gambling are the same people who think the Pac-12 will stay together forever. ”
— Las Vegas Sands lobbyist Andy Abboud, referring to the NCAA conference, which lost all but two members last year. The current proposal would make Texas the most lucrative legal sports market in the nation, ahead of New York and Florida. California is the only state with more full-time residents than any other state
“If we had that money here in Texas, think about what it would mean for so many things that are important to us as Texans.”
— Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talks about bringing legal sports betting to the state.
