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For months (years!), we’ve talked about the Las Vegas Sands Corp and their ambitions to bring betting to Texas. So far, that’s gone nowhere as state lawmakers have repeatedly shot down attempts at legalizing betting in the Lone Star State.
This article is not necessarily about that, but instead, about The Sands unconventional ways. And not just in their attempt to bring gambling to one of the country’s most conservative states. No, that’s only scratching the surface about one of the world’s biggest gambling empires.
You see, most people don’t realize this, but The Sands doesn’t even have an actual casino business in Las Vegas or Nevada in general. Heck, it doesn’t even have one in the entire United States. That’s right, of the two casino properties it still owns, both are international — in Macao and Singapore.
You’re probably wondering, then how did they get so big business-wise? And how can this company even dare to bring a casino-resort to the state of Texas? That’s what this story covers so keep reading on how The Sands built its empire, doing it their way.
How The Sands Built Its Empire
The Adelson family is most associated with The Sands, but… they didn’t found the company. The original creator was Mack Kufferman, who opened the original Sands Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in 1952. This was an original Rat Pack hangout spot for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford.
Sheldon Adelson didn’t enter the picture until 1988 when he bought the casino for $110 million. While honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, he came up with the idea of the Venetian. To create it, he tore down the existing casino and built the Venetian, which still stands today.
The Venice-themed Venetian is one of the hallmarks of the Strip. To capitalize, the Adelson’s opened the Palazzo next door in 2007, creating a mega-resort complex between the two.
Around this time, Adelson set his sights on East Coast expansion. In 2009, the company launched Sands Bethlehem in Pennsylvania on the old Bethlehem Steel site — a strategic move, located just an hour from Philly and 90 minutes from New York City. A decade later, they sold it for $1.3 billion to Wind Creek Hospitality, run by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama.
These moves made The Sands what it is today — a publicly-traded company that does over $11 billion in revenue today. Though, Sheldon is no longer around as he died in 2021. That same year, the company sold its Las Vegas properties for a whopping $6.25 billion. And with that, The Sands cashed out of the city that made it famous, and set its sights for elsewhere again.
Adelsons (Try) To Take Texas
This is where Texas enters the picture. Out of Las Vegas, The Sands is now being shepherded by Sheldon’s wife, Miriam, to go big in Texas. At the tail end of 2023, they started buying a controlling stake in the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. Not just any team either, this is a franchise owned by one of the league’s most outspoken men, Marc Cuban.
But ever the opportunists, most people read between the lines on the multi-billion-dollar sale: it was a play to bring legal gambling to North Texas. As it was then and still today, locals have to jump to nearby Oklahoma to do their betting. But with the Adelson family at the head, surely, they’d bring their expertise with them.
The Adelsons soon bought massive amounts of land in Irving, Texas. By then, it was obvious what their intention was: moving the Mavericks away from Dallas and into the suburb. Not only is there enough space for a brand-new basketball arena, but a casino too. An arena-casino hybrid would be the NBA’s first, and surely, a license to print money.
Texans Say No Way
Earlier this year, Sands made it official by proposing a $4 billion resort proposal in Irving, right near the old Texas Stadium that housed the Cowboys forever. They promised jobs (9,000 of them), new entertainment, and eventually, casino gambling.
But… Texans weren’t buying it. Locals pushed back hard, flooding city meetings with opposition. The nearby University of Dallas aired its concerns too. The heat got so high that Sands had to strip out the gambling piece just to get the zoning passed. That move worked — but the fight didn’t end there.
The drama spilled into local elections, with city council races turning into a proxy war over whether gambling belongs in Texas at all.
Meanwhile in the capital, lawmakers gave the Adelson-backed bills another cold shoulder. Despite pouring millions into lobbying and campaign donations, Sands still couldn’t get a vote to legalize gambling. Not before the 2025 legislation ended.
See what we meant earlier when we said the Sands and Adelsons are unconventional? They’ve approached everything — from their casino business to the Texas legalization efforts — in their own way. It worked in business, but no cigar yet in Texas politics.
Still, we wouldn’t doubt them out. They have a big war chest of money that’ll keep them fighting for a long time. It could become a war of attrition in Texas…
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