DraftKings is hiring a government affairs specialist as it ramps up a difficult political push to bring legal sports betting to the Lone Star State.
Texas lawmakers will convene for their biennial legislative session in January. Elected officials will consider thousands of pieces of legislation, including bills to support legal sports betting and casino gambling.
DraftKings representatives, as the job listing indicates, are set to arrive in Austin, likely on behalf of or alongside Fanatics, BetMGM, FanDuel, and potentially more major sportsbooks. They will be joined by Las Vegas Sands, which sent a team of advocates to the capitol two years ago and have announced plans to do the same in 2023.
All these stakeholders will find a difficult political climate. Though gaming supporters remain publicly bullish, the current legislature’s positions make Texas’ most significant gaming expansion since the lottery started selling tickets more than 30 years ago a daunting challenge.
Texas gambling legalization difficulties
One of the fastest-growing and diversyifing states in the country over the past few decades, Texas has maintained its conservative political roots. Religious groups maintain considerable political and cultural influence, which they have used, in part, to prevent gambling.
Texas is one of the last states without commercial casino gambling or legal sportsbooks. There are a handful of small tribal casinos and horse tracks along with the lottery, but there are no “Las-Vegas style” destination gambling resorts that have become more common across the country in recent decades.
Republican politicians in Texas are working to keep things that way.
DraftKings is hiring a Texas-based "Government Affairs Specialist"; $DKNG Is set to join $LVS and other top gaming companies in what figures to be a well funded - and difficult - push in Austin next year to bring legal casino gambling and sports betting to Texas
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) November 14, 2024
Texas will begin its 2025 legislative session, again, with conservative Republican control in the governor’s mansion. The GOP will have an even tighter grip on the state Senate after this year’s election cycle.
Though Gov. Greg Abbott has warmed to the idea of gambling expansion, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has remained opposed. Through his position, Patrick runs the day-to-day dealings of the Senate. He has said he will not take up any gambling bill without majority support from the GOP caucus.
Though Texas sports betting legislation passed through the House in the 2023 session, there appear to be only a handful of Republican gambling supporters in the upper chamber in 2025. Without Republican senator’s support, sports betting or casino gambling bills likely won’t be brought up for a vote.
High stakes
For Las Vegas Sands, one of the world’s leading gaming companies, Texas represents a multibillion-dollar opportunity.
The company is looking to bring a massive resort casino property to the greater Dallas metroplex, one that could include a home for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. Miriam Adelson, widow of Sands founder Sheldon Adelson, purchased the Mavericks in part hoping to see this project come to fruition.
For DraftKings, and the rest of the sports betting industry, Texas means potentially hundreds of thousands of new customers. The second-largest state by population, Texas is also home to many of the nation’s most prominent professional and college sports teams.
It’s unclear if Sands, spearheading the casino charge, and the sportsbook companies will work together. Sands has no online gaming presence and Sheldon Adelson was one of the industry’s most outspoken online gambling adversaries.
Still, they share a common goal. And major backers, including former Gov. Rick Perry. Industry-funded surveys show the majority of Texans support gambling, and casinos in neighboring states see hundreds of millions of dollars cross state lines annually.
Bottom line
Texas will be a focal point for the gambling industry’s expansion efforts in 2025. And potentially 2027. Or 2029. The question is how long the current political climate will continue to stonewall their efforts.
