Despite an absolutely massive sports culture, sports betting isn’t legal in Texas.
Historically, the Lone Star State has maintained a firm stance against gaming in almost all types and though there are indications of a change, Texans should not hold their breath waiting for legal sports betting to arrive anytime soon.
However, there are a couple of exceptions. While standard sports gambling isn’t allowed, websites providing daily fantasy sports, for example DraftKings and FanDuel are permitted to function in the nation.
Early in 2019 a state lawmaker registered a brand new Texas sports betting bill to permit in-person and cellular sports gambling and whether it looks awesome on paper, it confronts a few huge challenges. More importantly in another section.
In this guide we’ll Have a deep dive into Texas sports betting laws to answer:
When will you be able to wager on sports legally in Texas?
What is the brand new Texas sports gambling bill H 1275 about?
How can people in Texas be able to bet on sports when it becomes legal?
We’ll also delve into the questions of whether it is lawful to bet on daily dream sports (DFS) in Texas and how the state’s enormous professional and college sports culture will play to the legal sports betting industry we will one day see develop in the Lone Star State.
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Texas Sports Betting Bill Filed Feb 1, 2019 (H 1275)
About February 1, 2019, Rep. Eddie Lucio III filed H 1275, the first sports gambling bill in Texas because the US Supreme Court overturned the decades-old federal ban online sports gambling known as PASPA.
We are going to lay out the bill’s main points in a second but first let’s discuss the main reasons this bill can have difficulty passing.
First of all, it was introduced by a Democrat and Texas is a staunchly Republican state. Secondly, for the bill to pass, a referendum to amend the state constitution to add sports gambling must be held. The settlement will have to pass with a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate and be approved in a voter referendum. The earliest that can happen is November, 2019.
Here are the bill’s main features:
Online and mobile sports betting in Texas is going to be legal.
A maximum of five licenses will be sold. Each license will allow two online gaming website skins.
Gamblers will pay a 6.25% tax, similar to a revenue tax, on all money wagered.
If the bill and resolution to amend the constitution pass, sports betting will be lawful in Texas on January 1, 2020.
The Recent Sports Betting Situation at Texas
Estimates suggest billions of dollars of tax revenue could be produced from sports gambling legalization which Texas would be the second-biggest sports betting state in the country.
Even without online and mobile gambling, it is projected that Texans will bet $9 billion on sports annually. A 6.25percent tax on these sales would equal over $500 million.
The desire to access that potential revenue is butting up against a mostly conservative, anti-gambling establishment which will make for an interesting dynamic if this bill goes forward.
A prevailing anti-gambling mindset isn’t the only barrier that this invoice will have to clear. Since you’ll read below, even if the state wanted to legalize sports betting it would still need to amend its constitution to permit for gambling on sports.
All types of gaming, with the exclusion of the state lottery and dog and horse racing, is illegal in Texas.
There’s only one tribal casino in the whole country and it isn’t permitted to provide casino table games, just slots.
The gaming laws are incredibly stiff in the Lone Star State and bookmaking is a Class A misdemeanor.
Despite sports betting being prohibited in Texas, the state’s biggest sports team, the Dallas Cowboys, have agreed to a sponsorship agreement with WinStar World Casino.
With the deal, the Cowboys became the first NFL team to partner with a casino.
This doesn’t mean legalization is coming shortly to Texas, no matter how the country’s flagship sports company inking a significant deal with a casino business is another portion of the puzzle that is coming together.
Another large factor is that Texas’s neighbors such as New Mexico, Louisiana, and Oklahoma either have fully fledged legalized sports gambling or have invoices in movement to legalize it. That means Texans will have ample chance to take their billions of dollars and wager it from state.
Texas Betting Laws Summary
Sports gambling is illegal in Texas.
A sports betting bill was introduced in February of 2019 which could take effect on January 1, 2020.
While sports gambling is illegal, horse and dog racing are lawful. The state lottery has been around since 1991.
There’s one tribal casino in Texas, the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino in Eagle Pass on the Mexico border.
Daily fantasy sports betting is lawful and DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo! all accept players from Texas.
The History of Online Sports Betting in Texas
There is no actual sports gambling background in Texas. The nation has enforced one of the country’s strictest set of anti-gambling laws and it goes way back. Dog and horse racing are legal in Texas, nevertheless gamblers can simply put in-person wagers. OTB gambling is not allowed.
To Provide the current scenario some context, let’s look at the most crucial moments in Texas’s gaming history:
1933 – Texas implements its very first Pari-Mutuel horse race betting.
1937 – Four years to the country’s foray into legal horse racing that the paths are shut down and gaming on the races is banned.
1971 – Charity gambling is exempted from anti-gambling laws. A couple of years after this ruling is overturned after more making it illegal .
1982 – Licenses for charitable gaming are legally sanctioned. This took an amendment to the state constitution in 1980.
1987 – Pari-mutuel horse track betting reunite as a result of some favorable result in a state referendum. Simulcast betting from outside racetracks is released in 1991.
1988 – Casino Cruises are offered which sanction legal gaming so long as they’re in international waters. Vessels depart from the Texas coast. Operations lasted for 20 years before shutting down.
1992 – A referendum passes allowing for a state lottery that includes draws and scratch-off games.
1996 — 2002: Tribal/state compacts come to a head as bingo halls and casinos on tribal lands are closed and reopened several times. Just one tribal casino remains to date that’s possessed by the Kickapoo tribe just south of San Antonio near Mexico.
2013 – Many bills are introduced to expand gaming in the country but don’t find the light of day. Plans comprised offering video lottery terminals at racetracks and eight state-licensed casinos.
Which Online Betting Sites Are Legal in Texas?
As of now, no internet sports betting websites are legal. Taking a look at the present sports gambling bill, nevertheless, it’s clear that the future of legal Texas sports gambling will include online and mobile betting choices.
The Lone Star state is exceptional in that it just has one tribal casino, and it’s located near the Texas/Mexico border. It’s a good bet that this business will attempt to get involved using a land-based sportsbook and an online gaming program.
Other physical infrastructure as far as casinos is infrequent so we expect nearly all the actions to occur online.
Like we mentioned before, the WinStar World Casino created a formal deal with the Dallas Cowboys which may be an indication that it’s considering entering the marketplace.
In addition, we expect based online sports gambling sites that are already operating in other nations to apply for licenses. This includes brands such as BetStars, 888sport and many more.
If legalization does happen, check this page for specialist reviews on all the best online sportsbooks in Texas.
Which Sports Could You Bet on Online at Texas?
Texas is among the most sports mad states in the whole country, with just two NFL teams, three NBA teams, two MLB teams, two MLS teams, along with also an NHL team.
And that does not even tap into their huge collegiate sport footprint, together with high rated teams coming from colleges such as Texas, Texas Tech, SMU, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M.
When and if legal sports gambling comes to Texas, gamblers will have the ability to wager on favorite North American sports and nearly anything else located anywhere on the planet.
A Normal menu of sport Texans will be able to bet on includes:
NFL Football
NCAA Football
NBA Basketball
NCAA Basketball
NHL Hockey
NCAA Hockey
MLB Baseball
NCAA Baseball
Australian Rules
Boxing
Cricket
Formula 1
Golf
MMA
Nascar
Rugby
Soccer (MLS, Premier League, Champions League, La Liga, International Competitions and much more )
Tennis
Non-sports Entertainment
The Way to Bet on Sports Legally in Texas
Betting is presently extremely limited in Texas, with one land tribal casino in the entire state and no physical sportsbooks.
The sports betting legislation that is currently in the works gives us a sign of how things will likely work in the future.
In other states that currently allow online sports gambling, the practice of signing up for an account, depositing money and placing legal wagers is really simple.
First read reviews of all of the best online sports betting sites in Texas, find one you like and then register for an account. You can usually make an account from everywhere but you have to be in Texas to really make stakes.
You’ll need to supply some personal information and once your account is set up, you can deposit cash using lots of popular banking options. You can often get in on particular welcome bonuses as well as other offers when you deposit.
Once the money is in your accounts, just discover the sport that you need to bet on and place your wager.
Are Daily Fantasy Sports Legal in Texas?
Players may place wagers at popular DFS gaming websites including FanDuel and DraftKings, however there is a bit of a legal grey area when it comes to whether it is actually legal or not.
While the state doesn’t press charges against daily dream sites, there have been unsuccessful invoices to fully legalize DFS in the past.
The two FanDuel and DraftKings take Texas players and the state seems content with allowing this play out at a country of lawful flux until it fully considers their next steps on sports betting.
Concerning security, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and the US Gaming Commission are responsible for all DFS activity so at the end of the afternoon, funds on the sites are 100% secure.
What Is the Future of Online Sports Betting in Texas?
While historically a dark location for legal gambling, Texas’s potential so far as sports betting goes has gotten somewhat brighter.
There is still a ways to go but with the debut of a new bill to legalize sports gambling we’re starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
Estimates range, but the American Sports Betting Coalition considers legalized sports betting could inject almost $2 billion dollars to the local market and produce over 9,000 jobs. With Texans already gambling on sports and in different states, new laws may really have a chance of death.
On the opposite side of the debate are groups such as the General Baptist Convention of Texas which is made up of roughly three million Texans. Not only are they contrary to legal sports gambling, they wish to eliminate the whole state lottery.
Rob Kohler is a lobbyist for the Baptist Convention and states the proposed tax on sports gambling will hurt the weakest people in the country the most, similar to the lottery.
“It’d create a revenue tax deduction using its regressivity. So, is it smart for us to fund our government with the people that we’re giving money to help? No,” said Kohler.
On the other hand, the State lottery failed to generate $1.3 billion in 2017 for the state’s education system. The tax revenue from legal sports betting will be even larger.
Questions Remain for Legal Texas Sports Betting
Whether sports gambling is eventually legalized in Texas depends on plenty of different factors and nobody can predict precisely how it’s likely to play out.
Our very best guess is it will happen but it might not be the recent sports betting bill that gets the work done.
However, if everything goes perfectly and H 1275 moves with an amendment to the constitution, Texans will have the ability to start gambling on sports lawfully as early as January 1, 2020.
The sheer size of the possible sector and gains, literally tens of thousands of dollars, is the biggest reason we might observe this legislation fast-tracked.
In the meantime, sports bettors in Texas can gamble on DFS, or even make the trip to one of a few nearby countries that are already legalizing full-on sports gambling.
2019 will be a significant year for internet sportsbooks in Texas and we’ll post big developments as they happen on this page.
Additionally, browse our state by state guides to legal sports betting in the united states for more info on other parts of the country.

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