Navigation

Are Texans Ready for More Gambling and Legal Weed? A New Survey Says Yes.

Perhaps the tides of two hot button issues are turning in Texas.
Image: casino
How soon will we hear the slots ringing in Texas? Story Hub

What happens on the ground matters — Your support makes it possible.

We’re aiming to raise $6,000 by August 10, so we can deepen our reporting on the critical stories unfolding right now: grassroots protests, immigration, politics and more.

Contribute Now

Progress to goal
$6,000
$1,900
Share this:
Carbonatix Pre-Player Loader

Audio By Carbonatix

If you’re a blue voter in Texas, it can be easy to feel like you're outnumbered. Well, that’s because you are and have been for a very long time. But it can be lonely, all the same.

A new survey, however, may help some of you more liberal-minded folks in the Lone Start State feel a bit less lonely. According to the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, “a substantial majority of Texans” support some rather radical changes to the state’s notoriously strict laws regarding gambling and marijuana.

“Almost three out of four Texans, or 73%, favor allowing destination resort casinos, a proposal that would require amending the state constitution,” a statement announcing the survey results explains. “Smaller majorities support online sports betting (60%) and betting at professional sports venues (56%), both of which would also require a constitutional amendment.

"Even larger majorities support changing the state’s restrictive marijuana laws, with 79% in favor of fully legalizing medical marijuana and 62% supporting legalizing recreational marijuana. More than two-thirds, or 69%, support decriminalizing marijuana for personal use.”

The casino gambling topic is as hot as it has ever been in Texas, thanks in part to a coalition of billionaire sports franchise owners including Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban enlisting the likes of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to lobby for the cause on their behalf. But the matter has more recently become front-page news thanks to Cuban selling his majority share of the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson, the owner of Las Vegas Sands Corp., one of the largest casino and resort operators in the world.

Mixed in with the passionate fallout from the recent Luka Doncic trade are theories featuring connections between Adelson’s hope for Texas to legalize casino gambling and her desire to capitalize on the shift once it becomes reality. Some fans, however, are suddenly not in favor of casino gambling thanks to how it would benefit the Mavericks owner.

With casinos in Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico, proponents of allowing casinos in Texas suggest the state is losing untold millions, or more, in revenue to neighboring states. Opponents of loosening the gaming laws in Texas point to potential problems related to addiction and possibly an increase in assorted crime that legalized gambling might bring as the primary reasons to keep it on the other side of the Texas border.

You also do not have far to go for legal recreational weed, which New Mexico introduced in 2021, nor easily accessible medical marijuana in Oklahoma.

“Texas is surrounded by states which already allow casino gambling, and several have legalized or eased marijuana regulations,” Renée Cross, researcher and senior executive director of the Hobby School, said. “Proponents of both legalized gambling and legalized marijuana argue Texans are taking money that could be spent here out of state.”

Of course, studies and surveys can say anything, but when the Texas Legislature, and the mighty Republican trio of Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton is in charge, such things don’t often tend to matter.

Session after session, bills addressing gambling and marijuana reform are filed and gin up headlines but they never get anywhere. For this year, Patrick has already said he doubts any gambling-related bill will advance simply because there will not be enough Republican support. Patrick has also been vocal about his desire to have THC products, including delta-9, banned statewide, which would put quite the damper on any hopes of bills aimed at any sort of marijuana reform making it too far in 2025.

The survey addresses the proposed THC ban, noting that “[d]espite strong support for liberalizing marijuana laws, more than half of Texans back Patrick's proposed ban on THC consumables, which are currently unregulated in Texas. That support includes 61% of Republicans and 70% of members of Gen Z, dropping to 48% of Democrats and 46% of baby boomers.”

But perhaps the legislative tides will turn if the numbers this survey indicates continue to grow over time.

“This research indicates a majority, and in many cases a significant majority, of Texans support these proposals, including a majority of Republicans,” Mark P. Jones, political science fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and senior research fellow at the Hobby School, said in the statement. “While support for marijuana-related legislation is lower among Republicans than Democrats, and among those who describe themselves as born-again Protestants, support for many of the proposals under consideration crosses demographic and partisan lines. That’s especially true in regard to gambling.”