Texas has thirty million people, an NFL team half the country has strong feelings about, and exactly zero legal sportsbooks.
Zero. No app, no retail counter, no state license anywhere near a sports bet.
Demand isn’t the problem. The Texas Legislature keeps finding new ways to not pass a bill, and the guy who runs the Senate calendar makes sure “not passing a bill” stays the plan.
To be fair, Texans aren’t completely stuck. Daily fantasy apps like Underdog, Sleeper and DraftKings operate legally because DFS gets classified as a skill contest instead of straight gambling. Prediction markets like Kalshi and FanDuel Predicts are fair game too, and so are the play-money “social sportsbooks” that let you bet without ever touching real cashouts. None of that is a full sportsbook with real odds, so anyone who wants real money on the Cowboys covering the spread is still finding a workaround. Just not through any of the above.
That workaround adds up to something like $7 billion a year moving through offshore and unregulated books, per industry and advocacy estimates that shift depending on who’s doing the counting. There’s no official state number, because there’s no state framework to produce one.
The 2025 legislative session had two real bills on the table. Rep. Sam Harless filed HJR 134, sports betting only, 15% tax rate. Rep. Charlie Geren filed HJR 137, the bigger swing, casinos and sports betting both, up to ten licensed casinos. Neither moved the needle. Charles Fain Lehman flagged exactly why here:
On-device sports betting is still illegal in nearly 20 states, Texas among them. Both bills died in the Senate. Not on a floor vote. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who controls what actually reaches that calendar, never let either one get that far.
Here’s Patrick explaining himself:
That’s not just Patrick being stubborn for sport. If 60% of Republicans in his own polling actually oppose legalization, he’s blocking a bill that doesn’t have the votes to pass anyway. Doesn’t make the $7 billion any less real. Just means the fix isn’t waiting around for one guy to change his mind.
Next chance is 2027, since Texas only meets every other year, running the place like the world’s angriest DMV that’s only open in odd years. That’s not an annual failure repeating on a loop. It’s a two-year window that just slammed shut again. One betting account summed up the workaround about as well as anyone:
Texans who want action on the Cowboys or the Astros “still have options.” Those options just skip the part where anyone guarantees the book pays out, which matters given the total lack of consumer protection that comes standard with an unlicensed operator.
Forty states and jurisdictions, D.C. and Puerto Rico included, already figured this out. Texas keeps choosing, two-year window after two-year window, to leave $7 billion sitting on a table nobody in Austin feels like clearing off.
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