The Odds of Expanding Gaming in Texas are Long

posted on 2.10.2025

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s comments last week on the Texas Take Podcast concerning Texans’ ability to participate in online sports betting caused a bit of stir.

“I don’t have a problem with online sports betting,” Abbott told Scott Braddock of Quorum Report and Jeremy Wallace of the Houston Chronicle.

Gaming proponents say a ballot measure to expand gaming in Texas by allowing online sports betting and/or limited casino gaming would pass if recent Texas polling on the topic is to be believed.

While the gaming industry has ramped up efforts to try and pass measures in recent sessions, its chances in passing something in the 89th Texas Legislature don’t seem much improved.

Abbott’s comments have no real downside for him as statehouse-generated ballot measures do not require the governor’s signature – it is the Legislature expressing its will.

But there are two chambers in the statehouse.

The GOP-led Texas House passed HB 1942 and HJR 102 in 2023, primarily with Democrats’ support, but neither the bill nor the constitutional amendment authorizing expanded gaming was referred to a Senate committee.

It demonstrates why many consider a Texas Lt. Governor to be the actual most powerful policy maker in the state.

It is the Lt. Governor’s sole authority to determine if a bill gets referred to committee, let alone if it may be raised on the Senate floor for debate and a potential vote.

“Any gambling legislation will remain dead on arrival until it has the support of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick,” Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said recently to WFAA-TV.

Patrick has said it is not the Senate’s will to consider such measures.

“I’ve said repeatedly there is little to no support for expanding gaming from Senate GOP. I polled members this week. Nothing changed. The senate must focus on issues voters expect us to pass,” Patrick said on  X in May of 2023 when asked about that year’s HB 1942 and HJR 102.

More recently, Patrick said voters were not pushing for it.

 “When we finished the session, no one called and said, ‘Oh, you didn’t pass the casino bill.’ It’s not on anyone’s top 20 list,” Patrick told WFAA’s Jason Whitely and Jason Wheeler on the Y’all-itics podcast last November.

“It doesn’t mean there aren’t people who really want it. Like anything else Jason, it bubbles up from the ground to tell a House member or a senator, that they want this legislation to pass and that has just not happened.”

In the GOP majority Texas Senate, Patrick added “I might have 3 or 4 senators out of 20 Republicans who support it, that’s it.”

While a lot can happen between now and the end of the session in June, the odds seem exceedingly long that lawmakers will approve a gaming expansion measure for the November ballot.

Questions? Contact TAB’s Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.

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