Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Governor Greg Abbott now supporting sports betting in Texas.
00:05This is a significant piece of news here because I think this has an opportunity, honestly, Pat, to move ahead of all of the other states.
00:13I mean, we know that the sports teams want it.
00:16If they can get the government involved, local government in Texas involved in this, this thing has some legs, maybe next year.
00:23I mean, Texas has been something that we've been talking about nonstop because of these little tiny momentum changers.
00:29I mean, you've got Miriam Adelson after she bought the Mavericks in 2023, pouring money into the politics scene in Texas to kind of sway gambling.
00:39Of course, we've seen Mark Cuban, Jerry Jones, Tillman Fertitta.
00:42They all want destination casinos and sports betting can be kind of an addition to that or a standalone depending on how the lawmakers feel.
00:51And yeah, this is huge. I mean, Greg Abbott is the sitting governor of Texas and has kind of been neutralish on it.
01:00But now he says he won't stand in the way of sports betting.
01:04So that is clearly not opposition.
01:06Now, the problem there is and this is where to your point where it can kind of sway things is it still needs to get through the legislator.
01:14The House, it passed an online sports betting bill in 2023.
01:18They meet every other year and it fell on deaf ears in the Senate, partially because it had more Democratic support than Republican support.
01:25And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is not a fan of that method.
01:29He in a Republican controlled state, he says it needs to be a Republican majority bill.
01:34And that's where the issue stands.
01:36He's he's standing firm with the current GOP platform in Texas, which is anti gambling.
01:42And so that remains the main issue.
01:45Now, can Abbott sway his lieutenant governor enough if he's that passionate about it or wants it that badly enough?
01:53We'll have to see. It's going to be an interesting session for sure.
01:56Because, again, of all the momentum pieces we've talked about recently and this is a huge one.
02:01And so, yeah, right now, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick still in the way.
02:06But having the governor say, hey, this is it looks like an OK thing to me.
02:11That's got to mean something big.