Texas Sports Betting Hopes Dim Amid Legislative Pushback

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00:00And finally, Pat, I wish we had better news for our friends in Texas, but it does not

00:04appear we're getting sports betting anytime soon in the Lone Star State.

00:07Yeah, I think when this session started up, or even before the session, I was coming on

00:13talking about all the good, positive news for those hopeful for sports betting legalization

00:17in Texas.

00:18And I think we all took that with a grain of salt, even though it was a giant snowball,

00:22it felt like.

00:23You know, you had Governor Greg Abbott come out, say there was no, you know, he's no objection

00:27to it.

00:28You had millions of dollars poured in from the likes of the Adelsons.

00:33So there was plenty of movement there.

00:36In recent weeks, it's kind of snowballing the other way.

00:39Of course, the whole time, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's been presiding over the Senate.

00:44We've all known all along that it wasn't, he's not going to call it up for a vote unless

00:49there's a majority of Republicans in the Senate who support it.

00:52And the GOP platform in Texas is anti-gambling.

00:55So Dan Patrick was an immovable object to begin with.

00:59But then you look back at 2023, there was a sports betting bill that passed the House.

01:05And so there was hope that you could at least make it that step again in 2025.

01:10But you know, we had one representative a couple weeks ago come out and say, no, this

01:15is dead.

01:16It's six feet under.

01:17We're going to make sure it doesn't pass the House.

01:18Well, last week, a group of new freshman Republican representatives came out, sent

01:25a letter to the committee that it would likely start in.

01:27There is a bill, of course, working.

01:29It hasn't been assigned to a committee, but the committee it would likely start in sent

01:34the chairman a note that just said, hey, we oppose this.

01:38We're, you know, a dozen new lawmakers who replaced lawmakers who voted for it in 2023

01:44and were against it.

01:45So it's dead.

01:46And that was essentially what it came out to.

01:49Again, that's 12 lawmakers that voted for it in 2023 were replaced with these lawmakers.

01:57And it barely just by one vote surpassed the two thirds majority that it needed to pass

02:02the House in 2023.

02:03So if you're doing the math there, unless there's a bunch of new votes that just came

02:07out of thin air, it doesn't seem like the votes are there in the House again.

02:11So Texas, yeah, for those who are hopeful, it doesn't seem great news in the Lone Star

02:18State coming out of the House of Representatives.

02:21If you're looking to even get back to where you were in 2023, is that terrible in the

02:25long run?

02:26No.

02:27Again, because Dan Patrick's still there and we didn't expect it to go through the Senate

02:31anyway.

02:32So it's going to be waiting till 2027, at least in Texas, it seems like.

02:37Because of course, the legislator only meets every other year.

02:41So that's there.

02:42But I should note last week in Hawaii, a kind of a surprising state, you know, it passed

02:48the sports betting, passed the House, and it's now passed two Senate committees.

02:53And so who knows, Hawaii could be just under the radar and surprise everybody out there.

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