Can New House Speaker Breathe Life into Texas Sports Betting Timeline?

Can a new House of Representatives speaker in The Lone Star State change the course of Texas sports betting legalization discussions? Experts are starting to believe so.

Dustin Burrows, a Republican representative out of District 83, won the race to be the new House speaker. Typically, a Republican taking up this post isn’t necessarily newsworthy. And officials on the right are, usually, those most likely to oppose sports betting in Texas. On top of that, Burrow apparently voted against the bill to legalize sports betting in The Lone Star State roughly two years ago. All of which points to another long-shot path for any sports gambling push.

At the same time, Burrow is more of a moderate by Texas standards. By beating out someone way more conservative than him to House speakership, it suggests that The Lone Star State could be softening its general stance on the growing popularity of online sports betting in the United States. But can that translate to legalization in Texas during this year’s round of legislative meetings.

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Pat Evans of Legal Sports Report recently made an appearance on the SportsGrid Network. During this spot, he expands upon the significance of Burrows taking over as House speaker. Below, OSB has transcribed the snippet of his interview that’s most important:

“This one’s really interesting. As we know, the Senate is the big hurdle. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is not letting up. His strong point is the GOP platform in Texas is anti-gambling. ‘We’re not moving until…If there’s more Democratic support than Republican support, we’re not taking a bill up in the Senate.’ So that’s there. But in the House, we have a new speaker, because there’s a runoff between a far-right faction and a more moderate faction. Dustin Burrows, the more moderate Republican, won support to be the Speaker of the House. 

“What’s interesting is, he voted against the Texas sports betting bill in 2023 that passed [through the House]. However, he got way more Democratic support than Republican support to be the speaker. So that opens up bipartisanship that will be needed to get any sort of movement on a sports betting bill in Texas. What that means in the Senate, we’ll see. But it does kind of open up certain flexibility for some of those moderate Republicans to say, ‘Hey, we do like this sports betting bill because it does a lot of good for the state to regulate and keep it in the clean air.’ We’ll see what ultimately happens. The Senate is still the major issue. But the House seems to remain open, because [a bill] did pass in 2023.”

This is a pretty big deal. Even though a 2023 bill passed through the House, it wasn’t a no-brainer. Democrats throwing their support behind Burrows nod toward a higher overall Texas sports betting approval waiting.

The Senate Can Still Derail Sports Betting Hopes in Texas

Of course, support for Texas sports betting in the House of Representatives means only so much. Any piece of legislation must still make it through the Senate. That is tougher to square away.

Indeed, it should help that any Texas sports betting bill will be fashioned by Republicans. At the same time, this has long been the case. The 2023 bill received plenty of support among House Republicans. And it still failed to gain traction with GOP members of the Senate. 

There is a chance that Lieutenant Governor Patrick doesn’t even allow a Texas sports betting initiative to appear on the Senate’s agenda. By his own words, he will need to have concrete proof of sweeping support among Senate members. 

As of now, it isn’t clear whether the approval rating is on the upswing or downswing among those GOP officials. And while this can be tough to gauge, the lack of clarity is not exactly a good thing.

Then again, more recent reports suggest support for Texas sports betting is on the rise. This effectively counteracts the aforementioned ambiguity. Once more, though, we run into a critical question: Is this ballooning support coming from Senate members? Or is it just an increase in vocal advocacy among House members? Because as we’ve seen on multiple occasions, the difference absolutely matters.

So Is There Any Meaning Behind Texas’ New House Speaker?

Everything just discussed seemingly devalues the importances of Burrows taking over as House speaker. But that is nowhere near accurate.

Given the support he received from the Democrats, we imagine this guarantees two things: that a Texas sports betting bill will be proposed, and that it will receive the necessary support from House members on both sides of the fence.

This in itself represents a milestone. Texas sports betting discussion never profiles as a formality, no matter which branch of Congress is involved. If the House has reached that status, it at least ensures a good portion of the battle is already over.

Think of it this way: Without the proposal and passage of new Texas sports betting laws in the House, the Senate is unlikely to discuss them itselves. If nothing else, Burrows’ installment promises that the push to legalize sports betting in Texas will continue. And so long as it’s active, we imagine Senate approval is inevitable, even if it’s not imminent.

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