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Texas is not a gambling-friendly state at the moment. That could start to change, however, if Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke puts into action what he said on Wednesday. ORourke claims that if hes elected on Nov. 8, hes inclined to support both legal casino gambling and sports betting in the state of Texas.

As far as casinos go, hes probably talking about retail gambling for now. However, that would be a necessary first step towards eventually having an online option.

ORourke said residents are already traveling to engage in both retail and online gambling outside of the state.

During a press conference, he spoke about the obvious benefit to legalization:

We would be able to bring in billions of dollars more.

To the east and west, Texas is surrounded by legal sports betting states. Only its northern neighbor, Oklahoma, lacks legal sportsbooks. That said, New Mexico doesnt have online sports betting and isnt likely to add it any time soon, according to Online Poker Reports sister site, Legal Sports Report.

Hypothetically, if Texas does eventually legalize all forms of online gambling, it would be a big prize. Its 30 million residents would nearly equal the populations of the top three US online casino states.

Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania contain nearly 32 million people put together. Last year, each one of those states generated more than $1 billion in iGaming revenue.

Though ORourke seems to be leaning in that direction, dont count on it happening too soon.

If online sports betting becomes a reality in the second-most populous American state, it likely wont happen until next year. Retail casino construction would likely take years. Getting those forms of gambling underway would set the stage for online casinos, but that would take several more years, at least.

Here are the reasons for that.

US online casinos have a strong toehold in the eastern part of the country, with six states live:

However, legal online sportsbooks far outnumber and generally predate online casinos. Right now,19 states and the District of Columbia are home to legal online sportsbooks.

The most recent online sports betting launches were:

New York is an example of how sports betting can kickstart the conversation about online casinos. Empire State legislators made an effort to legalize iGaming this year, though those bills never reached a vote.

That lag generally happens because lawmakers tend to have more reservations about online casino gambling than sports betting. One concern they have is that they consider online casino wagering Big G gambling, which they believe requires study before legalization. They and their constituents suffer from the widespread misconception that sports betting is relatively safer.

Another big and possibly unfounded concern is that retail casinos may suffer if they legalize iGaming.

For instance in Illinois, where online sportsbooks launched in March 2020, an iGaming bill flopped during 2021.

That happened after a lawmaker voiced exactly that concern in April 2021. Rep. Bob Rita asked during the Illinois House Executive Committee if online casinos would cannibalize retail casino revenue. The committee chairman was listening to testimony about the Internet Gaming Act (IGA), which hed sponsored.

IGA didnt pass last year, to online gambling advocates chagrin. It has now been more than two years since Illinois legalized online sports betting and the state doesnt have legal online casinos.

Sports betting might get the conversation started, but so far most online casino success stories have gone the omnibus route, instead.

The most recent states to legalize and launch online casinos did so as part of package deals with online sports betting:

Along those lines, Kentucky Senators didnt bring HB 606 up for a vote on March 30. The measure wouldve legalizedonline poker and sports betting, though not casino gaming. However, the bill failed to reach the finish line on the last day of the Kentucky General Assembly session.

A common belief about online gambling is that it wont be legalized if retail gambling isnt there first.

So far, it has been true that if a state doesnt have land-based casinos, lawmakers wont even consider the online version.

There is one notable exception when it comes to sports betting: Tennessee.

Online sportsbooks launched in the Volunteer State in November 2020. However, even now, Tennesseans have to travel out of state to visit commercial or tribal casinos.

Kentucky also lacks land-based casinos, and attempted to follow in Tennessees footsteps, but failed.

Texas has no commercial casinos and only one full-size tribal casino, which is only a Class II gaming facility. That means it can offer slots-like bingo machines, but not true slots or table games.

Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel is in Eagle Pass, a small town near the Mexican border. At that point, Texans may consider crossing the border, as both retail casinos and online gaming are legal there.

Meanwhile, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribal entity of El Paso presented an argument in February to the US Supreme Court in order to start offering electronic bingo, as well.

ORourkes exact wording leaves things ambiguous. Whatever his intent, it seems unlikely that a conservative state like Texas would go from virtually no gambling to full-package online gambling in a single step.

However, just about every publication reporting on his statement ends up discussing online gambling, as well as retail casinos.

Perhaps ORourke meant both.

Its hard to know, because the gubernatorial candidate only spoke about gambling for 30 seconds out of more than 40 spent discussing Texas property taxes:

If we were to make legal casino gambling and sports betting in the state of Texas, which as you all know many Texans engage in now, its only that those revenues go to other states and to other state governments, we would be able to bring in billions of dollars more.

And from listening to Texans across the state, one, its a very popular proposal. And two, I think it would also help us to address some of the challenges that we have in reducing inflation and property taxes in the state of Texas. So I think that warrants a very close look and its something that Im inclined to support.

On his gubernatorial campaign site, the former congressman and presidential candidate blames incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott for property taxes increasing $20 billion since he took office. Abbott first entered office in 2014 and, if reelected, this will be his third term.

A poll of Texas voters in March found Abbott in the lead at 42% and ORourke narrowly behind, at 40%. The Lyceum survey has an error rate of plus or minus 2.83%, so a win may be well within reach.

In Texas, even 30 seconds of discussion about gambling gets noticed.

ORourke was already on record as advocating expanding Medicaid and legalizing marijuana in order to generate enough state tax revenue to accommodate lowering property tax rates. He mentioned gambling expansion as another possible method.

The press conference about lowering property taxes features ORourke and elected leaders standing on a lawn in Dallas County, across from what appear to be single-family homes. Amid wind and traffic noises, ORourke talked about how he would ensure Texans could remain in their homes, despite rising property tax rates.

About halfway through, he mentioned wagering.

As of yesterday, ORourkes video that was largely about what he termed the property tax crisis had 968 reactions, 509 comments and 6,800 views.

Its hard to tell if his talk about gambling within that video is whats garnering the attention.

Because an April 20 tweet by the Houston Chronicle linking to its gated article, Beto ORourke Calls For Legalizing Casino Gambling, Sports Betting In Texas, had520 retweets, 81 quote tweets and 2,318 likes as of last night.

For context, ORourkes most popular Facebook video is a San Antonio rally on Friday. The recording has 1,300 reactions, 649 comments and 10,000 views.

LSR notes that in order to legalize online gambling, Texas will also have to amend its constitution.

So just about every effort to expand gambling in Texas stops at the door of reluctant lawmakers.

The Texas Tribune explains one retail casino expansion effort in an article published on June 16, 2021:

Las Vegas Sands ended up spending as much as $6.3 million on lobbying at the Capitol, according to state records, plus what the company pegged as at least $2 million on a statewide ad campaign. It is likely that the companys total spending topped $10 million, given the number of weeks that the company stayed on the air in the states most expensive media markets.

Whats more, theLonghorn Statesefforts will be hampered by its unusually short legislative sessions.

The Texas Legislature meets for 140 days, and only during odd-numbered years. Thats an even shorter calendar than the one for the Indiana General Assembly, which saw online gambling bills die in committee onJan. 25.

That makes it the state with the 14th-shortestsessions. For comparison, the Utah State Legislature comes in dead last, meeting just 45 days a year. (See chart below).

Indiana lawmakers rank four spots higher than Texas, because lawmakers meet for four months per odd-numbered year and 2.5 months on even-numbered years, like 2022.

Meanwhile, Hoosiers have been able to bet online on sports sinceOctober 2019.

Short legislative sessions have a way of killing online gambling bills, at least the more ambitious ones. Except for West Virginia, all states with full online gambling are among the ones with longer sessions. When it comes to sports betting, the shorter a states sessions, the more likely it is to be retail-only, if it has legalized it at all.

So even if ORourkes victory comes to pass and he pushes for legalization, Texas could still be many years away from launching iGaming. However, it even being a possibility is a change from the current situation in which its not even on the radar.

Data: Legiscan / Graph: Online Poker Report

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Beto Gives Texas Online Gambling Proponents Hope - OnlinePokerReport.com