Last updated: February 14, 2024
The Texas Legislature’s 2025 meeting may delay full-service casinos in Texas for at least four years, potentially benefiting Cuban’s ambitious resort, casino, and arena project.
Mark Cuban has always been quiet about things. The fiery owner of the Dallas Mavericks spoke out in favour of gambling in Texas casinos earlier this month at the Chase Make Your Move Summit.
He told the Dallas Morning News at the summit that he would love to include a casino in his plans for a new resort and Mavericks basketball arena.
Mark Cuban said in his statement that Texas isn’t a great place for a vacation and that resort gaming is needed to make the state a good place for tourists.
Cuban told Las Vegas Sands he would work with them to make the project happen.
In an ideal world, Cuban would like a new neighborhood built in the Dallas area with a casino, a resort, and a new Mavericks arena.
The kind of gaming that Cuban want would only be available at resorts. This means that if resort-style casinos were made legal, they could only be found in certain resort areas.
Since Texas lawmakers have always disliked casinos and sports betting, resort-style gaming might be the only type of limited gambling that Austin’s picky lawmakers would be okay with.
This is true even for Cuban’s idea; all you have to do is look back to May to see this. Before the end of the legislative session in May, Texas lawmakers killed a bill that would have allowed eight resort casinos to open.
The next time the Texas Legislature meets is in 2025. Full-service casinos might not open in Texas for at least four years. That time frame might work for Cuban since his big plan to build a resort, casino, and arena would take many years to complete.
Cuban didn’t specifically mention it, but the fight for the legalization of casinos and sports betting in Texas has progressed hand in hand.
The House voted in favour of legalizing sports betting with a two-thirds majority earlier this year. The victory was short-lived, however, as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced the bill would not be referred to the Senate due to an insufficient Republican majority.
Even if Republican legislators in Texas disapprove of sports betting, the public there does.
The Texas Sports Betting Alliance (TBSA), a group advocating for the legalization of sports betting in Texas, pointed out that between September 1 and October 23, there were over 1.1 million attempts to place a sports bet within Texas’ borders.
The TBSA found a nearly 70% increase in such attempts between the two years. The Texas Rangers’ run to the World Series likely sparked a large portion of that growth, in addition to the general uptick in sports-betting interest.
Susan is a verified gambling support specialist who has helped thousands of problem gamblers get back on their feet through therapy and financial counseling. She’s also worked as a cage manager in four Las Vegas casinos and spent two years in Macau in her 30s, where she became extremely savvy at Sic Bo and other Asian table games. Her knowledge and expertise have and continue to play a priceless part in how we structure our content, particularly when it comes to game guides and casino reviews.
