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SportsTranscript
00:00And finally, Pat, I wish we had better news for our friends in Texas, but it does not
00:04appear we're getting sports betting anytime soon in the Lone Star State.
00:07Yeah, I think when this session started up, or even before the session, I was coming on
00:13talking about all the good, positive news for those hopeful for sports betting legalization
00:17in Texas.
00:18And I think we all took that with a grain of salt, even though it was a giant snowball,
00:22it felt like.
00:23You know, you had Governor Greg Abbott come out, say there was no, you know, he's no objection
00:27to it.
00:28You had millions of dollars poured in from the likes of the Adelsons.
00:33So there was plenty of movement there.
00:36In recent weeks, it's kind of snowballing the other way.
00:39Of course, the whole time, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's been presiding over the Senate.
00:44We've all known all along that it wasn't, he's not going to call it up for a vote unless
00:49there's a majority of Republicans in the Senate who support it.
00:52And the GOP platform in Texas is anti-gambling.
00:55So Dan Patrick was an immovable object to begin with.
00:59But then you look back at 2023, there was a sports betting bill that passed the House.
01:05And so there was hope that you could at least make it that step again in 2025.
01:10But you know, we had one representative a couple weeks ago come out and say, no, this
01:15is dead.
01:16It's six feet under.
01:17We're going to make sure it doesn't pass the House.
01:18Well, last week, a group of new freshman Republican representatives came out, sent
01:25a letter to the committee that it would likely start in.
01:27There is a bill, of course, working.
01:29It hasn't been assigned to a committee, but the committee it would likely start in sent
01:34the chairman a note that just said, hey, we oppose this.
01:38We're, you know, a dozen new lawmakers who replaced lawmakers who voted for it in 2023
01:44and were against it.
01:45So it's dead.
01:46And that was essentially what it came out to.
01:49Again, that's 12 lawmakers that voted for it in 2023 were replaced with these lawmakers.
01:57And it barely just by one vote surpassed the two thirds majority that it needed to pass
02:02the House in 2023.
02:03So if you're doing the math there, unless there's a bunch of new votes that just came
02:07out of thin air, it doesn't seem like the votes are there in the House again.
02:11So Texas, yeah, for those who are hopeful, it doesn't seem great news in the Lone Star
02:18State coming out of the House of Representatives.
02:21If you're looking to even get back to where you were in 2023, is that terrible in the
02:25long run?
02:26No.
02:27Again, because Dan Patrick's still there and we didn't expect it to go through the Senate
02:31anyway.
02:32So it's going to be waiting till 2027, at least in Texas, it seems like.
02:37Because of course, the legislator only meets every other year.
02:41So that's there.
02:42But I should note last week in Hawaii, a kind of a surprising state, you know, it passed
02:48the sports betting, passed the House, and it's now passed two Senate committees.
02:53And so who knows, Hawaii could be just under the radar and surprise everybody out there.