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There’s a prevailing thought in Texas that goes something like this: “all our betting money is going to Oklahoma and Louisiana.” This is not necessarily inaccurate.
You see, betting in Oklahoma and Louisiana does exist. Both states have fully legalized casino betting markets. Naturally, they’ve created casinos near their borders with Texas to lure over their bettors. In the case of Oklahoma, both Choctaw Casino & Resort and WinStar World Casino are 100 or so miles from Dallas.
By this line of thinking, you’d imagine Oklahoma would be ahead of Texas in the push to legalize sports betting (Louisiana has already beaten both to the punch), but is it? Once we started thinking it though, it actually feels the path to legalization for Oklahoma is WORSE than their neighbors in Texas. Allow us to dig into it:
All Eyes On 2025 Legislative Sessions
We’re only a few short weeks away from 2025 when brand-new legislative sessions meet across the country. Texas is a curious case though. They only meet once every two years, while most states like Oklahoma do so yearly. These sessions are when new legislature can get passed. It just so happens to be 2025 is a year where Texas lawmakers DO meet.
The last time Texas met in 2023, a bill around sports betting passed the state’s House for the first time ever. It went to the Senate and effectively died with little to no conversation, but still, that’s progress for them. Can we even say there’s been any progress in Oklahoma as of late? No, all of its recent bills have met a worse fate. In 2023 and 2024, bills died in legislative committees — and didn’t even make it to either the full House or the full Senate.
But progress can also be measured in sentiment. There’s no perfect way to measure sentiment but just take some quotes, for example.
“I think it’s coming to Texas. It’s just a matter of time,” said Brant Martin, a partner at Wick-Phillips, a Texas law firm with about 70 attorneys and offices in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin. Martin isn’t just any attorney either. He argued and won a tribal gaming case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 then helped write legislation for casinos and legal sports betting in Texas. So he’s on the ground working.
Then you have Oklahoma state Senator Bill Coleman, who’s helped draft sports bettings in his own state. He said this recently: “That relationship is not repaired. We have to get all the parties on board, and you have 39 tribes, 149 legislators, and the governor. It’s difficult in this state.”
The relationship Coleman is referring to is between those 39 tribes and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. Both are the biggest stakeholders in getting anything legalized and let’s just say they’re at odds with each other. Big time. This feels like a bigger hurdle than anything in Texas too, as we’ll explain in the next section.
Political Tension In Oklahoma As High As Ever
We’d be more optimistic about Oklahoma’s betting hopes if it felt like the political tension in the state was lessening. However, it feels the opposite. If anything, the tribes and Stitt are further apart than ever.
Things went bad from worse this time a year ago. That’s when Stitt rolled out his own plan for legalizing this industry. Here’s the thing though: Stitt never consulted the tribes on his plan. That’s a red flag considering the state has a compact with the tribes that gives them the right to offer betting. Realistically, this is their industry just as much as it’s Stitt and the state’s.
It gets worse though. Stitt’s plan sought to bring other commercial operators to Oklahoma. While the tribes would have exclusive rights to offer in-person betting, any mobile betting app like FanDuel or DraftKings would be allowed to enter the state after paying a $500,000 licensing fee. That would be a death sentence to tribes considering in other legal sports betting markets, online wagers make up 95 percent of the market.
The tribes were rightfully infuriated by this proposal, as they should be. This is the second time Stitt has tried to infringe on their compact. Even before this proposal, Stitt tried to renegotiate those terms with different tribes. He contended that the compacts had expired, while the tribes said previous agreements auto-renewed. The issue went to the state’s Supreme Court and the tribes won.
“Gov. Stitt has repeatedly abused his office to wage baseless legal battles against our Native American tribes, wasting millions of dollars in state resources,” said Attorney General Gentner Drummond after the Supreme Court ruling.
Long story short: Stitt and the tribes hate each other. More so than ever before. That’s not progress, that’s a regression in Oklahoma’s fight to legalize sports betting.
Texas Has Clearer Path To Legalization
Back to Texas. When you really look at both issues in the state, there’s less roadblocks in Texas. For one, there are only three federally recognized tribes, unlike Oklahoma which has dozens. Obviously, fewer opinions makes it easier for Texas to align with tribes.
Not only that, but Texas has a “sugar mama” who’s trying to buy her way to a vote. Miriam Adelson — the heir to The Sands casino empire and the new owner of the Dallas Mavericks — is donating millions to Texan Republicans in an effort to influence policy around betting. Oklahoma lacks this big spender who can mend the strained relationships behind the scenes.
So we rest our case: Texas has a better chance of legalizing than Oklahoma.
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