Texas House OKs online sports betting; casino proposals uncertain as deadline looms

Online sports betting in Texas narrowly cleared a significant hurdle Thursday in getting passed by the Texas House. However, the fate of a second gambling initiative on casinos was uncertain as it approached a sink-or-swim deadline on Friday.

Three times Thursday, state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, requested and was granted a postponement to debate a resolution that, if approved, would allow Texans to vote on whether to open the state to eight resort-style casinos. An amendment approved earlier this week would require one of the casinos to be placed in the Austin area.

Geren's third postponement moved the debate to noon Friday, a tight squeeze before the midnight deadline for House members to pass any House resolution in this legislative session. The implication is that Geren had not wrangled the 100 votes he needs to reach the two-thirds threshold required in the House to advance the resolution.

The lukewarm interest is a troubling development for Las Vegas Sands and other casino giants who want badly to do business in Texas but can’t seem to overcome concerns from conservative lawmakers who fear gaming would destroy families and create addictions — and only scarcely stimulate the state's economy.

More:Legalized sports gambling would bring Texas more money. Here's why not everyone is sold.

The casino lobby faces strong opposition in the Texas Senate, which has expressed little interest in even discussing casinos, and might not even vote on the sports betting resolution the House sent to it on Thursday. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican from Houston who presides over the Senate, said in March that there’s not enough support in the 31-member chamber to schedule either measure for even a committee hearing. 

Both the casino and sports betting resolutions would require a constitutional amendment, meaning that unlike most legislation, which requires only a majority vote to proceed, they need support from two-thirds of House members. Neither resolution met that 100-vote threshold in a preliminary vote Wednesday, prompting proponents to rally additional support before Thursday's votes.

The effort was successful for sports betting, which went from 97 votes in support Wednesday to 101 Thursday. Flipping her vote from yes to no was Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, who says she changed her mind after speaking with residents in her rural Central Texas district who support online sports betting.

All major sports franchises in Texas are behind a push to legalize online sports betting, with representatives from several teams testifying in favor of the legislation at a House committee hearing in March. 

Nearly 40 states have legalized online sports betting since 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that prohibited it. In Texas, it could bring in an estimated $180 million a year in tax revenue that advocates say is instead going to other states and countries from Texans placing illegal bets. 

“The problem is, if we don’t do this now, millions of Texans are going to continue to commit illegal behavior,” the resolution’s author, Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said Wednesday. 

If the casino or sports betting resolution unexpectedly passes both chambers, it would set up a statewide vote in which Texans decide whether to approve or reject them as a constitutional amendment. 

San Antonio Democratic Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer spoke out against casinos, noting that under the resolution they would not be required to hire union workers or businesses operated by women or people of color. Martinez Fischer, who heads the House Democrats, suggested he may warm to the idea of casinos, but not this year. 

More:Lt. Gov. Patrick says clock is ticking to move bills. Here's how each chamber measures up.

“I’m not a 'no.' I’m a 'not now,'” he said Wednesday. “Let’s spend time to get it right.” 

Thursday's sports betting passage came with drama. A short-lived celebration from supporters came to a halt when House Speaker Dade Phelan accepted a request for a member-by-member vote verification. A member must be at his or her seat for their vote to count, and one member who voted yes, Rep. Oscar Longoria, D-Mission, was not. Phelan ordered his vote to be struck, which put support at only 99 votes. But Reps. Terry Wilson, R-Marble Falls, and Hubert Vo, D-Houston, said their voting machines malfunctioned, and that they could not cast a vote. They both asked to be shown as voting yes, for 101 total votes.

More drama is unfolding on the casino vote. On Wednesday, in a preliminary vote, it got support from 92 members — five fewer than the sports betting vote. After two delays Thursday, it was set to come up for a vote at 10 p.m. But Geren, who authored the legislation, requested yet another postponement, this time until Friday. The deadline to pass it is midnight.

Strongly opposing the casino resolution is the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, which operates a legal casino in Eagle Pass and fears that it will go bankrupt if the state more broadly authorizes casinos. The tribe makes most of its money from San Antonio gamblers, who the tribe says no longer would make the 2½-hour trek to Eagle Pass if a casino opens in San Antonio.  

An amendment that would’ve allowed the tribe to find an alternative site for its operation was killed on a point of order. House parliamentarians found that it went beyond the scope of the resolution by creating a Class III gaming compact between the Kickapoos and the state.