It’s the safest wager out there.
Photo by Joel Kramer via Flickr creative commons
A dozen Texas House Republicans who replaced pro-gambling lawmakers said this week they would oppose “any attempt to expand gambling” this session — a setback for efforts to legalize casinos and sports betting in the state.
The 12 GOP freshmen were joined by three returning lawmakers who voted in 2023 to allow online sports betting, but now say they will reject any such proposal. That measure passed the 150-member House with 101 votes two years ago, narrowly clearing the two-thirds threshold needed to amend the Texas Constitution.
The net loss of more than a dozen votes jeopardizes the chances of recreating that tenuous coalition, unless supporters can find votes elsewhere to make up the difference.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Rep. Ken King, chair of the House State Affairs Committee, the lawmakers sought to deal a death blow to the latest proposals to legalize casinos and sports betting, both of which were filed in the House last month. Neither has been referred to a committee this session, though both went through State Affairs in 2023.
“We are confident this legislation does not have the votes necessary to pass the Texas House this session,” the letter reads. “Given the certainty of its failure, I urge you not to waste valuable committee time on an issue that is dead on arrival.”
A spokesperson for King, R-Canadian, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The effort to legalize casinos in Texas has even less wiggle room than the sports betting contingent. Two years ago, a constitutional amendment to authorize “destination resort” casinos received 92 votes in the House, eight shy of the two-thirds mark.
Of the 15 signatories on the letter to King, nine are GOP freshmen whose predecessors voted for the casino measure. A returning member who signed the letter, Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, also supported casino legalization — along with sports betting — and is now vowing to oppose both.
That represents a net loss of 10 votes from the 92 who backed the casino proposal in 2023.
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Efforts to loosen Texas’ gambling restrictions have repeatedly failed since they were first enacted in 1856 and further tightened in 1973. The House’s approval of the sports betting measure in 2023 was the furthest either chamber has gone toward expanding gambling, though the move was largely symbolic, because Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — a Republican who runs the Texas Senate — immediately quashed the measure in the upper chamber. Patrick has repeatedly claimed there is minimal support among the Senate’s GOP majority to expand gambling.
With the 74-year-old Patrick in office until January 2027 and vowing to seek another four-year term, the legislative battle over gambling has been centered almost entirely in the House. Supporters are aiming for incremental wins in the lower chamber that would, they hope, lay the groundwork for when the Senate is run by a more sympathetic lieutenant governor.
Boy, Greg Abbott’s tepid support for sports betting sure moved the needle. I don’t know how many times I have to keep stating the obvious, but none of this is a surprise. What is at least a mild surprise is that the gambling industry’s years long strategy of spending even more money on lobbyists has never changed despite it being such a consistently risible failure. You would think that at some point they might learn the lesson that they are going to have to try to defeat gambling opponents at the ballot box, starting with Dan Patrick, but so far there’s no evidence that this lesson has gained any purchase. I know, opposing powerful incumbents is a risky strategy, but you’d think the freaking gambling industry might have some understanding of risk and reward. And yet here we are. Better luck next time, y’all.