A Texas “destination” resort casino is a matter of “when” not “if,” according to advocates leading the push.
Texas will see approval for its first-ever commercial gambling establishment in the coming years, according to Andy Abboud, SVP of Government Relations at Las Vegas Sands.
Speaking at Tuesday’s Global Gaming Expo, Abboud said Texas politicians will, eventually, break nearly two centuries of formal commercial gambling prohibitions.
“We're not leaving, we're staying until it's done,” Abboud said. “It's inevitable.”
Abboud added that if backers can’t get lawmakers to back casino gambling in 2025, they will try again in 2027.
“The analogy is people who think Texas is not going to back legal gambling are people that thought the Pac 12 would stay together forever,” Abboud said, referencing the NCAA conference that lost all but two of its members last year.
Texas casino gambling
The nation’s second-most populous state, Texas is one of the last remaining U.S. jurisdictions without commercial casino gambling. The “Texas Triangle” of the greater Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston metro areas is home to more than 20 million people.
Texans wager hundreds of millions of dollars annually at casinos in neighboring Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. While there are several tribal casinos in the state, they don’t offer many of the games or amenities of “Las Vegas-style” gaming facilities.
Las Vegas Sands has spearheaded efforts to bring legal casino gambling to Texas, hiring a team of lobbyists ahead of the state’s previous legislative session in 2023. The company is expected to have a similar force in 2025.
Miriam Adelson, the widow of Las Vegas Sands founder Sheldon Adelson, purchased the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks last year. If casino gambling is approved, Sands would seek to build a complex in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area that would include a casino and stadium for the Mavericks and potentially the NHL’s Dallas Stars.
The other Texas Triangle metro areas’ massive populations would be targets for virtually any casino operator.
Texas politics
Standing in the way of some of the nation’s largest untapped casino gambling markets are a handful of Texas politicians.
Gambling expansion has bipartisan support in the Texas state House of Representatives but does not yet have backing in the Senate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, has said he will not bring up a gambling bill in the upper chamber.
Abboud said Tuesday that he has Lt. Gov. Patrick's word that he will bring up a gambling bill if he gets majority support from his fellow Republicans. There are 19 elected GOP Senators, meaning casino advocates would have to convince at least 10 to support casino gambling.
Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick, who has blocked sports betting & casino gaming legislation, will bring the bill up for a vote IF a majority of fellow Republicans in the Senate support it, Las Vegas Sands SVP Andy Abboud said today; the (more) difficult part will be getting those votes
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) October 8, 2024
Lobbyists at the state capitol in Austin argue the key is educating lawmakers about gambling. Texans widely support casino gambling legislation, according to surveys conducted by a Sands-funded advocacy group, and proponents have argued it won’t impact a legislator’s future election prospects.
Texas’ constitution requires any gambling expansion to be approved by voters on a ballot measure. Should lawmakers approve casino legislation in the 2025 session, voters would get a chance to legalize commercial casino gambling on the 2026 ballot (the Texas legislature is only scheduled to meet in odd-numbered years.)
Sports betting potential
Sports betting stakeholders are running a parallel push to bring legal sports betting to the Lone Star State.
It remains to be seen if sports betting would be included as part of the casino referendum or as a separate, standalone issue. In either scenario, there should be plenty of interest.
Although Las Vegas Sands has no U.S. sports betting presence, virtually all other American operators would be interested in Texas. That list would include DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, Hard Rock Bet, bet365, and many others.
The quickest potential Texas sports betting launch, should it be approved for the ballot by lawmakers and backed by voters, would be 2027.
