Texas Casino and Sports Betting Amendments Are Back: Houston's Carol Alvarado and Fort Worth's Charlie Geren File Matching Plans Capped at 10 Casinos
Two joint resolutions filed on prefiling's first day would ask voters on November 2, 2027 to let the Legislature authorise casinos and sports wagering - capped at 10 facilities, a 15 percent tax ceiling, and, in the Houston senator's version, a new gaming commission with enforcement powers.
Casino gaming and sports wagering are back in front of the Texas Legislature before the session has even opened. Rep. Charlie Geren, a Fort Worth Republican, filed HJR 52 and Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat, filed SJR 11 on Monday, the first day of prefiling for the 90th Legislature, according to Texas Legislature Online records. Each proposes a constitutional amendment to the section of the Texas Constitution that bars lotteries and gift enterprises, and each would do the same limited thing: let the Legislature authorise and strictly regulate casino gaming and sports wagering by general law. Neither legalises anything by itself.
The two texts agree on the shape of the industry they would allow. Casino licences and locations would be capped at 10 facilities with terms of at least 40 years; the tax on casino and sports wagering revenue could not exceed 15 percent, and no other gaming-specific state or local tax could be added; casino gaming would be confined to onsite play at a licensed operator's physical premises; and the state would have to negotiate, on request, a Class III compact with any of the three federally recognised tribes with Indian lands in Texas. Neither text confines sports wagering to premises - whether Texans could bet on their phones would be settled by a later law, and the filed-bills reports dated November 10 list no enabling bill for either resolution, so licensing, the actual tax rate and online play are all still unwritten.
The difference between the two filings is the referee. Alvarado's SJR 11 would create a state commission, funded by lottery proceeds and gaming taxes and fees, with investigative, enforcement and audit powers over all lotteries, casino gaming and sports wagering, and the commission would decide where casinos and wagering may operate. Geren's HJR 52 leaves regulation to a future law. The day-one stack around them shows how unsettled the gaming file is: Sen. Roland Gutierrez filed SJR 12 and SJR 13 for Kickapoo tribal gaming, Sens. Bob Hall and Brent Hagenbuch filed SB 188 to abolish the state lottery altogether, and Rep. Salman Bhojani's HB 598 would bar prediction-market event contracts on deaths, wars, disasters and court cases, with a minimum age of 21.
The road is the same one that has stopped this idea before. An amendment needs two-thirds of both chambers - 100 of 150 in the House and 21 of 31 in the Senate - before a statewide vote on November 2, 2027, and the Legislature convenes on January 12, 2027. Geren's text repeats his 2025 resolution word for word apart from the election date; that version was referred to the House State Affairs Committee in March 2025 and went no further, and the Senate never took up the sports betting amendment the House passed in 2023. Alvarado has narrowed her own offer: her 2025 resolution tied destination-resort licences to racetrack associations with a $2 billion minimum investment in Dallas-Fort Worth, while SJR 11 adopts Geren's plain 10-licence cap. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick leaves office in January, but with 12 Democrats in the Senate, at least nine Republican senators must still vote yes - the filings put a concrete, limited model in front of both chambers, and the Senate remains the gate.
