Texas sports betting constitutional amendments – Igaming Business

HJR 134 seems to call sports betting only, although it does not explicitly prohibit digital betting. This would allow professional sports teams, PGA Tour stops and Class I competitions to become licensed. The proposal requires all potential licenses to exist as of January 1, 2025. Licenses will be able to work with providers of sports book management services.

There is no framework in the amendment of the Constitution and the language is unclear:

The constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to legalize the betting in this state of certain sporting events.

Other state legislative authorities, including Louisiana and Maryland, have followed such paths. If voters approve of Texas, as they did in these countries, the legislature will be charged with developing a framework for legal betting. Included in this would be to determine whether digital bets are part of the package. The voters in Louisiana and Maryland legalized in 2020, the brick and mortar sports books opened in 2021 in both states. Digital platforms came out live in 2022.

For Texas, November 2025 approval still means that a bet is more than a year old. The state legislative body only occurs in odd years.

Exactly what subjects could they be licensed?

How many licenses will be available is not clear from the proposal. The proposal defines a “sports team as defined by common law”. Legislators in other countries have specified exactly what they mean, including name crews. Texas has 13 professional sports teams. Seven of these teams are from the big four sports leagues in the United States.

Of the other six, one is WNBA Dallas Wings and five are football teams. Texas has three MLS teams, one USL Super League team for women (Dallas Trinity) and one national football team for women (Houston Dynamos). WNBA teams are approved to be licensed in most jurisdictions that allow sports teams to receive betting licenses. But MLS teams and women’s professional leagues are not included in any US jurisdiction.

There are four PGA Tour stops in Texas. The Texas Committee lists four racing tracks in the state. NASCAR does not appear in the proposal.

The road block still exists

Texas legislators are entertaining gambling legislation for the last two sessions. In 2023, a similar amendment to the Constitution accepted the Chamber, but entered the Senate. This one included places for car racing and set 98% of tax revenue to relieve ownership tax.

Despite the Hercules lobbying efforts by Las Vegas Sands and other gambling organizations, polls that show that texas prefer legal gambling, and governor Greg Abat says that there is no problem with online sports betting, the prospects for passing are muddy.

Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is also president of the Senate. He consistently says that he will not call any gambling bills, unless he has republican support.