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Texas Lawmakers Introduce More Gambling Bills

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

In poker, Texas is known as home of Texas Hold’em where Hold’em is not exactly legal.

Further, it’s much more complicated than the irony.

Texas is one of the fastest growing markets for live poker in America. It is where the idea of a poker club – a membership club that doesn’t take “rake” but fees to enter and sit – has become a reality for players from Dallas to Houston. There are now more than 50 of them.

Meanwhile, lawmakers don’t want to talk much about gambling. They don’t want to decide on the legality of poker clubs. And on a broader scale, as they are confronted with casino and sports betting bills in 2023, many of them want to ignore the topic for as long as possible.

Is this the year it all changes?

Bills, Bills, and Bills

If Texas doesn’t authorize some form of gambling this year, it’s not for a lack of trying. There are a plethora of bills in the legislature for this session.

Some lawmakers want to authorize the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas to create a gaming compact. It would allow them to move forward with discussions with the Secretary of State, per the tribe’s rights under the Federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). The bills don’t actually authorize gaming outright, but should Texas allow any type of gambling within 200 miles of the Kickapoo reservation, the tribe may then offer the same games.

The two bills on the table are companion bills – one for the House and one for the Senate:

-HJR 84 introduced by Senator Eddie Morales (D) January 19

-SJR 30 introduced by Senator Roland Gutierrez (D) January 20

There are several pieces of legislation seeking to authorize full-blown casinos. First, the state would need to create the Texas Gaming Commission. Second, they would move forward with building five casino resorts in counties that could deliver the most revenue as casino destinations: Bexar, Dallas, Galveston, Harris, and El Paso.

One bill authorizes the five casinos only:

-HCR105 introduced by Representative Harold Dutton Jr (D) February 7

Another bill puts forth the idea of casino gaming at destination resorts. They will be able to offer horse racing and sports betting in addition to regular casino games.

-HJR97 introduced by Representatives Charlie Geren (R) & John Kuempel (R) February 3

Speaking of sports betting, which is all the rage around the United States now, it is top of mind for many lawmakers. Some want to authorize it through the Texas Sports & Entertainment Recovery Act. This will require a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to decide the issue in November 2024. All of the sports betting bills are listed as, both as sets of companion bills:

-HB1942 & HJR102 introduced by Representative Jeff Leach (R) February 6

-SB715 & SJR39 introduced by Senators Lois Kolkhorst (R) & Juan Hinojosa (D) February 6

Then, there are the pieces of legislation that would change the wording of the current law related to gambling offenses. Gene Wu first introduced a bill to late 2022 that would have made it more difficult for Texas poker rooms to remain open under the membership club model. However, Wu later said that the bill was written poorly and actually meant to justify clubs as private residences.

He did reword it and introduced it as a new bill in January.

-HB1601 introduced by Representative Gene Wu (D) January 25

Opponents with Strong Voices

With all of the efforts to legalize various forms of gambling in Texas, the opponents are becoming louder than ever. While they don’t always have facts on their side, they do have important voices and the ability to block any and all bills.

Texas State Representative Carl Tepper suggested that gamblers should just take a direct flight to Las Vegas. It would be easier than creating “state agents, state bureaucracies” because “I just don’t know why we would want to deal with all that infrastructure.” He also noted that gambling revenue has not bee the “end-all be-all income for any state.”

Instead, Tepper said he would like to classify poker rooms as illegal gambling casinos and shut them down.

Worse, despite the bipartisan effort in support of gambling, the official Texas GOP platform last year stood against gambling expansion. Supporters will have to buck their official party line to fight for it.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a longtime opponent of gambling, will try to show that the state has a $32.7B surplus in its budget this year, meaning there is no need for gambling revenue.

On the Plus Side

Money talks…loudly. And Las Vegas Sands has a lot of it. The company started lobbying for casinos in Texas years ago and now has more than 60 lobbyists in the state. They are working with lawmakers after distributing more than $2M to them during the 2022 election. There is also a 2024 election on the horizon, and a lot of candidates would probably enjoy a boost to their election coffers.

Las Vegas Sands isn’t the only one deploying lobbyists. The Texas Ethics Commission recently reported that there are more than 260 lobbyists in the state, all registered as being affiliated with gambling.

Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan has become more open to the idea of destination casino resorts, as long as they remain limited. His support of the issue could be key in pushing bills forward. Even Governor Greg Abbott has changed his tune “if there is a way to create a very professional entertainment option” with casinos.

Former Governor Rick Perry is a fair-weather friend of gambling in that he only supports sports betting. He doesn’t consider legalization of that form of betting to be gambling expansion. Rather, mobile sports betting is something that people are already doing it in other states or via non-state-licensed sportsbetting sites. While there is always a chance that someone will tell Perry that sports betting is – in fact – gambling, he supports it for now.

 

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