Pro-gambling interests fail to gain ground in Texas primaries as legislative roadblocks remain

Despite slow progress, casino empire Las Vegas Sands promised to continue investing in candidates who support bringing destination resort casinos to Texas.

Despite failing to defeat a slate of anti-gambling candidates this primary cycle and facing powerful opposition in the Texas Capitol, casino interests say they are undeterred in their effort to elect legislators favorable to their industry in hopes of one day legalizing gambling in the state.

Republican state Reps. David Lowe, Terri Leo-Wilson, Mark Dorazio and Andy Hopper, all gambling opponents, defeated primary challenges from candidates backed by billionaire Miriam Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands casino empire on Tuesday. Outspoken anti-gambling activist Cheryl Bean also overcame opposition from Texas Sands PAC and Texas Defense PAC — super PACs funded by the casino company — in the open race for the Republican nomination to represent House District 94 in Tarrant County.

“If the prize is destination resort casinos in Texas, Las Vegas Sands is now further away from it in 2026 than they were in 2023,” said Mark Jones, a political science fellow at Rice University.

In a news release Wednesday morning, Sands PAC said it would continue to invest in and organize for Texas candidates in favor of bringing casino gambling to Texas.

“The long game matters,” read the statement. “And Texas Sands PAC is playing to win.”

The statement underscores the industry’s strategy to spend millions of dollars across the state in hopes of slowly growing its standing in both chambers of the Texas Legislature. Adelson donated $9 million to both Texas Sands PAC and the Texas Defense PAC last summer to back pro-gambling candidates. Candidates received direct donations from Texas Sands PAC, while the Texas Defense PAC spent millions more to indirectly boost candidates through mail, digital and voter-contact campaigns.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Texas Senate, remains a vocal critic of legalizing gambling: in both the 2023 and 2025 legislative sessions, he vowed that the Senate would not even vote on pro-gambling bills.

In 2023, sports gambling legislation advanced from the House but died in the Senate. Two years later, neither casino nor sports gambling bills got traction in the House despite millions spent on lobbyists by Las Vegas Sands.

With the 75-year-old Patrick securing the Republican nomination for a fourth four-year term as lieutenant governor, the deadlock looks unlikely to break any time soon.

But Sands appears to have nothing but time and money, pursuing incremental wins until the Senate is run by someone more sympathetic.

Adding to its base of support in the House, however, has proven challenging.

Republican businessman Kyle Morris, Lowe’s opponent, received $140,000 from the Texas Sands PAC but lost by more than 27 percentage points, according to unofficial results from the Texas Secretary of State. Morris was the single largest beneficiary of the PAC among non-incumbent candidates.

Meanwhile, former Mont Belvieu City Manager Nathan Watkins, Leo-Wilson’s opponent, received $110,000 and lost his race by 25 percentage points, according to unofficial results.

Those defeats come after Republican John Huffman, the former mayor of Southlake, failed to advance to the runoff in the Senate District 9 special election in November despite receiving $1.2 million from the Texas Sands PAC, according to campaign finance reports.

“Our mission remains unchanged: trust Texas voters,” Andy Abboud, senior vice president of government relations for Sands, wrote in a statement Wednesday. “We have and will continue to support candidates who are committed to a business-friendly environment that keeps the Texas economy strong, competitive, and growing. Cycle after cycle, the record speaks for itself, and we are proud of the role we played in delivering those results. We congratulate every candidate who earned the trust of Texas voters.”

Las Vegas Sands’ perseverance in the face of a string of defeats makes sense when factoring in the value legal casino gambling in Texas could bring to the company, said Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.

“There’s enough to gain that they’ll continue to spend,” Wilson said. “If Texas does at some point open up to casino gambling, there will be an enormous amount of money to be made here in the state.”

Sands does have a significant cohort of supporters and its Sands PAC gave direct donations to more than 40 incumbents in the House and Senate leading up to Tuesday’s election.

“They’ve been successful in protecting a lot of incumbents, but that doesn’t move the needle on the issues they care about,” Wilson said.

If anything, gambling is losing ground in Texas: The Texas Lottery Commission was abolished this year after allegations of corruption surrounding a winning ticket sold by an online courier. And some conservative lawmakers are pointing to recent NBA gambling-related indictments as an example of the moral decay caused by gambling.

Despite the defeats, available public polling in the state shows strong public support for legalizing both casinos and sports gambling, though Republican voters have expressed mixed views. Legalizing gambling in Texas would require the voters to weigh in on the issue directly through an amendment to the state constitution.

“I definitely think they’re in the long game,” Jones said. “I do think that they had hoped the long game wouldn’t be so long.”

Source: Paul Cobler, The Texas Tribune

Photo Credit: Miriam Adleson delivers a keynote speech at the Texas Association of Business Policy Conference in Austin on Dec. 7, 2023. Julius Shieh/The Texas Tribune

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Pro-gambling interests fail to gain ground in Texas primaries as legislative roadblocks remain

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