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One of the reasons why Texas sports betting (or casino for that matter) remains is illegal is because a lack of public support — or so they say. They being Texas lawmakers which have kept the state as one of 11 without a legal sports betting market in the country.
There’s a brand-new study that questions that train of thought so often regurgitated by Texas Republicans. Keep reading and we’ll tell you all about the poll results which shows in-state appetite is bigger than anyone thought!
Poll Shows Strong Interest In Betting
The new poll comes courtesy of the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs. The survey polled Texans at least 18 years of age on various issues— not only legalized betting, but marijuana, immigration, and other timely issues too. For our purposes, we only care about the gambling findings, of which there are multiple.
The first is in the topic of sports betting. According to the poll, 66 percent of Texans support mobile sports betting apps. Thats better than the 56 percent that support physical sportsbooks. This result should be music to the ears of big-name apps like BetMGM or FanDuel.
The survey also asked about a “destination resort casino” which has long been rumored (more on this later on). This one got overwhelming support — more so than the sports betting ones. Get this, a whopping 73 percent of Texans want a destination casino inside their state.
All three results were higher than anticipated — it’s certainly higher than previous polls that had Texans just barely favoring legalization. But when you think about it, perhaps that’s not surprising. As we said, Texans is now one of 11 states without betting. Everywhere else, it’s not only legal, but normalized. This has to rub off on Texans who are watching the same DraftKings ads or hearing ESPN commentators make gambling picks on TV as everyone else.
One more thing here, this was not a rinky-dink survey either. The Hobby School of Public Affairs polled 1,200 Texas adults over a week on January. The surveyors conducted it in English and Spanish too. They reported a margin of error of 2.83 percent with a sampling frame on gender, age, race/ethnicity, and education. Obviously, it’s not an all-encompassing survey, but not small potatoes either.
Will Texas Lawmakers Act In 2025?
Alright, here’s the billion-dollar question: will Texas lawmakers act on the survey findings? Will they push for legalization this legislative year? Texas meets once every two years for legislation so if something is going to get passed, it must happen in the next months or the wait will get extended until 2027.
The goods news is there is already a bill being proposed around the issue. We are talking about Senate Joint Resolution 16 (SJR 16), which was introduced by state Senator Carol Alvarado — a Democrat from Houston. If passed, SJR 16 would let Texas voters decide on a constitutional amendment to legalize several forms of gambling. This includes casino gaming at destination resorts, sports betting at physical casinos, mobile betting apps, and the creation of the Texas Gaming Commission to oversee the whole industry.
The proposal gets into specifics too, particularly on the casino resort side of things. Inside SJR 16 calls for the creation of six destination resort casinos across Texas. The plan designates two resorts each for the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Pearland-The Woodlands areas, with additional locations in San Antonio-New Braunfels, Corpus Christi, and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission.
To move forward, SJR 16 needs two-thirds approval from both the Texas House and Senate. If it clears that hurdle, the final decision would be left to Texas voters through a statewide referendum.
But will it get there? Coincidentally enough, an official from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs — who conducted the latest poll — was pessimistic on legalization efforts. We’re talking about executive director Renee Cross, who said the following:
“I would say the chances are bleak, if not very bleak, that this is going to go anywhere,” she said matter of factly.
Republican Support Is All That Matters
Notice the betting bill was proposed by a Democrat? Welp, there lies the problem. Nothing against the left party, but they are not in charge in red-blooded Texas. The Republicans are in charge, and it’s them who will decide the fate of legalized betting in the Lone Star State.
The first and most important person to convince is lieutenant governor Dan Patrick. Besides the actually governor, he’s arguably the most important person in state politics. Patrick overseas the Texas Senate, which is where precious betting bills have died.
There’s a litany of old quotes you can dig up of Patrick slamming legalized betting. Just dozens of em, and many as recent as last year. So the question becomes, has anything happened to change Patrick’s mind?
Well, Patrick and the Republican party has received tens of millions of dollars in donations from Miriam Adelson — the new owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Besides trading away Luka Doncic, Adelson has quietly and not-so-quietly campaigned for destination casinos. We’ll soon find out whether that money has gone to waste or not because the Texas legislature ends on June 2.
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