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Politics
Texas

Texas hold ’em: Mark Cuban all-in on sports betting

The Dallas Mavericks owner wants to partner with a Las Vegas casino for his next arena

Photo illustration of Mark Cuban (Getty; Illustration by The Real Deal)
Photo illustration of Mark Cuban (Getty; Illustration by The Real Deal)

To bet or not to bet. That’s the question plaguing Texas at the moment.

While Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have been dodgy on the issue of legalizing gambling, Mark Cuban has made his position clear.

Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

The Mavericks owner has been working up plans for a 20-story Madison Square Garden-like structure, complete with chefs, sleep pods, virtual sports games, and fans arriving in autonomous cars. Now, Cuban is adding another layer to this master plan — gambling.
“My goal, and we’d partner with Las Vegas Sands, is when we build a new arena, it’ll be in the middle of a resort and casino,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News. “That’s the mission.”

He is not alone. Every major sports franchise in Texas, including Jerry Jones’ Cowboys, is part of the Sports Betting Alliance. The organization was formed in early 2021 with the goal of legalizing sports betting in Texas — a few days later Lt. Gov. Patrick publicly vowed that sports gambling wouldn’t “see the light of day.”

Now, Cuban is the first of these owners to publicly declare a desire to partner with a casino for a resort-arena development. For him, legalizing sports betting is just the beginning.

“Online gambling’s great because it’s fun for fans and everything,” he said. “But the reality is that a bunch of politicians in Texas have already said that mobile gaming only moves the needle a little bit.

“But destination resort-casinos? That’s billions of dollars to the state. Big difference.”

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A proposal in the Texas Senate would allow Texas voters to decide in the November 2023 election whether to create a Texas Gaming Commission and legalize gambling “at a limited number of destination resorts and facilities licensed by the commission.”

Sen. Carol Alvarado

Sen. Carol Alvarado (Getty)

“Having somebody like Mark Cuban on board certainly gives a boost of enthusiasm to the effort,” said Texas state Sen. Carol Alvarado, the Houston Democrat who proposed the bill. “Hopefully he’ll use his clout and resources to help get us across the finish line.”

The gambling initiative is set to be considered during the 88th Texas legislative session, which begins in January.
“I would say the conditions for the passage of casino gambling are better today than any other time,” said Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist. “And if they don’t pass casino gambling, I think sports betting seems to be a decent fallback; even likely to happen.”

— Maddy Sperling

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