Efforts to legalize Texas sports betting received support from a prominent Lone Star State official last week. However, will that news as well as a poll showing overwhelming support for legalized gaming lead to progress in the state legislature?
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, speaking on the Houston Chronicle’s Texas Take podcast, said he didn’t have a problem with online sports betting.
"The reality is that I’d be shocked if there were not some Texans that do it already,” he added.
Texas is one of a dozen US states that has not legalized sports betting in any fashion. With a population of more than 31 million, Texas ranks second in the country in population and would be a massive addition to a national market that saw more than $15.2 billion wagered in October.
One lawmaker has already filed a bill calling for Texas voters to consider legalizing sports betting and casinos. Senate Joint Resolution 16 was filed by state Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston filed the bill in November.
Survey Says Texans Back Casino, Sports Betting Legalization
The governor is not alone in support of expanded gaming in Texas. Last Tuesday, the same day the Chronicle released its article featuring Abbott’s comments, a survey from the University of Houston found significant support for sports betting and even more for resort casinos.
The university’s Hobby School of Public Affairs found that 60% of those polled in January favor legalizing Texas online sports betting. That support is also bipartisan, with 65% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans, who hold the majority in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, saying they don’t want to see Texans take their money to other states for betting purposes.
Allowing resort casinos, meanwhile, enjoys 73% support, with nearing identical rates, 72% and 74%, from Republicans and Democrats, respectively.
Even born-again Protestants and older Texans, segments of the state’s population that are among the most conservative in the Red State, back casinos. Nearly two-thirds, or 65%, of those polled from the Silent and Baby Boom generations, are fine with legalized gaming, as are 62% who consider themselves born-again. While their support for online sports betting is only 46%, that still is a significant amount of support.
Texas Senate Likely Unmoved By Sports Betting Support
While the polls show strong support for expanded gaming in Texas, there remains one significant obstacle to its passage – the Texas Senate. That body is led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who is an ardent social conservative and a sharp critic of gambling.
The Senate is where measures to allow Texans to vote on sports betting died two years ago, and the odds would indicate measures on sports betting and casino gaming would likely fail to garner support in that chamber this year, too.
Late last month, Patrick unveiled the first round of his top 40 priority bills. Alvardo’s bill was not among the 25 Patrick listed.
Mark Jones, a senior research fellow at Houston’s Hobby School and a political science fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told KXAN-TV that the poll numbers aren’t likely to sway opponents in the Senate, where the GOP has a nearly 2-to-1 majority in the 31-seat chamber.
“The group that needs to be convinced are the 20 members of the Republican caucus in the Texas Senate along with the Lieutenant Governor, both of whom essentially believe as a group that the costs of gambling outweigh their benefit.”
The Texas Legislature convened last month, and the biennial session is scheduled to end on June 2.
