Texas Faces Uphill Battle in Legalizing Sports Betting

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00:00Let's end with Texas here.

00:02I know that has been a lot of back and forth in the state legislature trying to get this

00:06thing approved.

00:07We've seen some pushback and now maybe a new House bill.

00:10I don't want to use the word circumvent, but it does seem like there are a lot of lawmakers

00:14in Texas that are trying to get this through one way or the other.

00:17Yeah, Texas is just one of those things.

00:19Early on this year, we talked about this huge giant momentum, wave of momentum coming in

00:24Texas because, you know, there's millions of dollars being poured into it in the lobbying

00:28efforts.

00:30There's millions of lawmakers talking about it.

00:31There's, you know, all just excitement around it.

00:34You know, voters seem to want it in the polls.

00:37And yet we're still in the situation where Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is at the

00:41helm of the Senate and decides what is to be discussed on the Senate floor.

00:46In 2023, we saw a sports betting bill pass the House.

00:49A very similar bill is in the House again this year.

00:53We've also seen a rep come out and say, you know, we're going to bury this six feet deep

00:57and make sure it doesn't pass the House.

00:59So we'll see if it can even get any sort of legs there.

01:01But now we have the Senate companion bill.

01:03And again, that's going to be kind of just, you have to get a lot of support from the

01:08Republican Party because of Dan Patrick, who says he will not bring up a bill that does

01:13not have a majority of Republican support and the GOP platform in Texas is anti-gambling.

01:19So you know, you're going to have to, there's going to have to be a lot of people swayed

01:23on different, on that side of the aisle.

01:27And just to, you know, it is, as we talk about all the time, a bipartisan issue, no matter

01:31what you need people on both sides of the aisle to come together and say, yeah, let's

01:34get this done because of the opposition on both sides of the aisle.

01:38So it's a very complicated state, very complicated issue.

01:42We'll see what happens.

01:43But yeah, the bills are in play.

01:44I'm sure we'll get some discussion in Texas this year.

01:47But I, you know, just because I don't see Patrick budging, I don't think we're going

01:52to see Texas legalizing sports betting this year.