by
Of all the states without legal sports betting — 11 as of now — Texas is one of the most snobby about it. Here’s one of the most populous states in the country, and one of the richest too. It could make an absolute killing from sports betting taxes.
But it doesn’t. Why? Because the state, or at least the leaders of it, hang their heads on being above the “vice.” They are old-school conservatives who have long looked down upon gambling.
That’s how they feel, at least. But what about regular Texans? Do their values or religious beliefs stop them from betting on sports? After all, you can still use offshore sportsbooks or prediction markets in the state, almost without issue.
A new study done in Ohio aims to answer that question — not just for Texans, but nationally. The results, if we’re being honest, were a bit surprising. Keep on reading, and we’ll explain what the study discovered.
How Religion Affects Betting Likelihood
This study comes from the great folks of THE Ohio State, as they like to say. Anyways, researchers there surveyed 3,701 adults shortly after the Supreme Court lifted the federal sports betting ban in 2018 (feels like ages ago, doesn’t it?). They wanted to see how religious identity, church attendance, and religious tradition shaped sports betting behavior.
The prevailing answer? The logic most succumb to — “religion stops gambling” — is actually hard to prove outright.
“Our findings suggest that sports gambling behaviors seem to be a function of religious identities, affiliations, cultures and practices, but in pretty nuanced ways,” said Chris Knoester, a sociology professor at Ohio State and co-author of the study. “For most people, sports gambling seems to be an occasional and low-stakes hobby or leisure activity.”
The keyword in the last sentence is “low-stakes.” About 17 percent of respondents said they had bet on sports in the previous year. To no one’s surprise, men were more likely than women to wager— 20 percent compared to 15 percent. But here’s what makes most of these bettors low stake: the average amount wagered was only $57.
So while we often hear about the degenerate gamblers, if not, downright addicts, the reality is, those are few and far between. For every one that throws the rent money on 6-game parlays, there’s about 10 bettors putting down a modest amount on games to make them more interesting.
Back to religion, though. The study found that catholics — especially catholic men — were the religious group most likely to bet on sports. Maybe because many Catholics are Irish or Hispanic, but this demographic is more likely to drink too, so gambling isn’t out of the ordinary. Other religions, such as the Latter Day Saints, for example, treat gambling more as a hard moral line.
The most surprising finding, though? People who attended religious services once or twice a year were more likely to bet on sports than people who went every week, and also more likely than people who never attended at all. In other words, the “one foot in, one foot out” crowd showed the strongest betting behavior — not the atheists.
“There has been this longstanding assumption that religion discourages gambling. And we wanted to test that core assumption,” said Laura Upenieks, the study’s lead author and a sociology professor at Baylor. “One of the things you’ll find in our results is that different religious traditions treat gambling very differently, and that religion doesn’t uniformly suppress sports gambling in the United States.”
Where Does Texas Stand On Betting Right Now?
What are the chances of this study making it in front of key Texas lawmakers? And if it does, would they change their tune about allowing gambling to seep into the Lone Star State?
We wouldn’t hold out any hope of things changing in the state. If anything, recent events tell us Texas is getting even more serious about clamping down on betting and “betting-like” activities. By the latter, we mean prediction markets.
Lieutenant Governor of the state, Dan Patrick, recently directed Texas senators to study the “sudden inundation of prediction market gambling” and whether these platforms are using federal law to get around Texas gambling bans. Folks, that’s a well-timed warning shot before the 2027 legislative session.
Patrick is a heavy hitter in Texas politics. He leads the senate, and really, is second in power to only the state governor. Patrick is probably the number one reason that Texas sports betting isn’t a thing by now. He’s routinely chastised the industry and stalled any betting bills that’ve made it to the Senate.
Knowing that, you can see why prediction markets would bother him. The likes of Kalshi, Polymarket, DraftKings Predictions, and FanDuel Predicts all work perfectly fine in Texas and offer sports markets. The platforms argue they’re event contracts, not bets, but an old-school guy like Patrick ain’t buying that.
That’s why we wouldn’t expect this study, or anything else really, to change much in Texas. Regular people might be more open to betting than politicians assume, religious or not, but Texas politics is still controlled by leaders who see gambling as a vice and moral rot. It’ll take new leaders, not new studies, to change things in the Lone Star State.
Online betting sites 