Nearly 75 Percent of Texans Questioned Support Destination Resort Casinos in the Lone Star State
Posted on: February 4, 2025, 12:28h.
Last updated on: February 4, 2025, 01:21h.
More Texans support opening commercial resort casinos in the state than Texas legalizing online sports betting, according to a new survey.

The University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs survey released on Tuesday revealed that 73% of Texans support legalizing, constructing, and operating destination resort casinos in Texas.
That breaks down into 74% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans who were surveyed.
That contrasts with 60% of Texans questioned saying they support legalizing online sports betting in Texas. That includes 64% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans participating in the survey.
In addition, 56% of Texans in the survey say they support legalizing sportsbooks in the state’s stadiums and arenas.
The survey included 1,200 residents who were questioned last month.
Those surveyed were asked in part if they support or oppose legislation that would allow for the construction and operation of either one or two destination resort casinos in each of these metro areas: Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley.
The 73% who back destination resort casinos in Texas “is significantly greater than the three-fifths who back the legalization of online sports betting and the … more than half who think that pro sports teams in Texas should be able to operate sportsbooks in their stadiums and arenas,” Mark P. Jones, a Rice University professor who worked on the survey, told Casino.org.
Jones noted that support for destination resort casinos “is robust across all demographic and partisan groups.”
“In a Republican-controlled state like Texas, the preferences of Texans who identify as Republican weigh heaviest in the political calculations of the GOP leadership in Austin, and while a super-majority of Republicans (72%) favor the legalization of casino gambling in Texas, support among Republicans for legalizing online betting (59%) and sportsbooks at pro sports venues (55%) is more muted,” Jones added.
Dan Patrick Remains Influential
Even with the support for casinos shown in the recent survey, for casino legislation to get approved by the legislature, supporters “need to convince [Texas] Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) that the economic and tax revenue benefits of casinos outweigh the negative societal externalities associated with them.”
As of today, when Lt. Gov. Patrick looks at the scales, he sees the costs of casinos outweighing the benefits,” Jones cautioned.
The University of Houston survey was conducted between January 13 and 21. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.83%.
Ads, Lobbying Taking Place
The survey comes as TV viewers in Texas are being barraged with ads supporting the approval of commercial casinos.
The ads are from a political action committee (PAC) called “Texas Destination Resort Alliance” (TDRA), which is backed by Las Vegas Sands (LVS). The ads say they come from a “coalition” of Texans who want the state legislature “to allow us the opportunity to vote yes on a statewide constitutional amendment authorizing the development of destination resorts in the state’s major markets.”
LVS is among the organizations lobbying legislators to get casino legislation approved.
Senate Joint Resolution 16, which was written by state Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston), was introduced already. If approved, the legislation will clear the path for a statewide vote on casinos and gaming.
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