Beto O’Rourke pushing for legal Texas sports betting

Peter LewisPeter Lewis | April 28, 2022
Beto O’Rourke pushing for legal Texas sports betting

Time and time again, some big names have been pushing for Texas sports betting to arrive in the near future for the Lone Star State. Some of the bigger names have included Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Now, Beto O’Rourke pushing for legal Texas sports betting is making countless headlines, and rightfully so.

O’Rourke had previously run for the presidency of the United States, but things didn’t go through for him. Now, he’s hoping to become the next governor of Texas. With this, he made it more than clear that he’s hoping sports betting can arrive at the state in the near future. With O’Rourke pushing for this, it’s only adding to the high amount of support for people.

“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, it’s only that those revenues go to other states and to other state governments — we would be able to bring in billions of dollars more,” O’Rourke said this month. “And from listening to Texans from across the state, firstly, it’s a very popular proposal.”

From the moment O’Rourke came out in support of Texas sports betting, he’s become an even more popular candidate for governor. This wasn’t his intention, but he also understands just how important this change would be for the state. Millions of dollars would be on the way revenue-wise. So, what in the world is the hold up here and when could things end up changing?

O’Rourke makes a great point about Texas sports betting

It goes without saying, but O’Rourke makes a great point for Texas sports betting here. From that quote, you can see that he references the revenues going to other states. Why should this keep going on instead of Texas reaping the benefits? People are having to travel to other places to check out the different sports numbers, of course including NFL odds, rather than doing so from home.

There are now more than 30 states who have legalized sports betting and online gambling. Texas has been sitting on its hands through this process, though, and they’re on the outside looking in. There was hope that the needed changes would have been made last year, but things fell through. Now, countless people are waiting to see if next year things can happen.

There’s optimism that legislation could go through by the time 2023 rolls around, but again, things are totally up in the air. O’Rourke is on the team of things that want it to be changed and the green light to be given. With so many pro teams in Texas, there’s surely going to be a wide amount of sports betting done once it is made legal. People will of course want to bet on the Cowboys.

Jones knows this, which is why he’s so hopeful that betting will be made legal as well. Football betting will be huge, not just at the pro level either. With teams like the Texas Longhorns dominating the college football betting too, people will be ready for some Big 12 action in terms of wagering as well. There are so many betting opportunities and people shouldn’t have to leave the state for it.

Texas sports betting must come through soon

On top of all of this, the pressure is that Texas sports betting must come through soon or people are going to really lose patience. The legalization of sports betting and online gambling has been discussed for years now, but the local politicians simply can’t get on the same page in trying to move forward. What in the heck is holding everything up? There’s just too much division.

With so many different moving parts for gambling, it has all kinds of different ideas and potential initiatives trying to get pushed for people to vote on. However, things keep holding it all back. If you ask O’Rourke this is merely unacceptable and it shouldn’t be taking this long. If he does land the governor position, could we see him take a large role in a potential move?

This is something that people all over Texas are hoping to see. O’Rourke would have plenty of support in this legal sports betting movement. Jones and Cuban surely will be ready to try and help his campaign come out on top if they can make a difference. Sports betting is being done illegally in Texas and if it’s not regulated, the state is losing out on an insane amount of money.

Not only that but money is being transferred to criminals here, as more and more gambling rings are going to be shut down the longer people have to wait for legalization. O’Rourke knows something must be done. Only time will tell what in the world goes down, but O’Rourke’s push for governor most definitely just got even more interesting here.

Peter Lewis

Peter Lewis Jr. comes from Mississippi where he and his family spend their days discussing college football and basketball. He's written sports journalism for years after studying journalism at a local university.