Casino advocates backing up the cards for a future in North Texas

The push to bring resort-style casinos to North Texas continues. Las Vegas Sands is playing their odds again for the 2025 Texas Legislative.

House Bill 2843 aimed to legalize casino gambling in Texas by creating eight licenses at destination resorts. However, it was shot down before making it to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk.

Just last week, elected officials from North Texas including Irving, Arlington, and Dallas met with Sands leadership.

“I understand it is a viable industry. It is an industry that, at least according to the Sands Corporation, Texas has lost billions of dollars to all of the states that surround us that have legalized gambling,” Dallas City Councilmember Chad West said. “This is the first time I’ve actually heard, personally, from the Sands Corporation, which is the largest destination resort conglomerate in the world. Their head of government relations for the company briefed and had a discussion with a lot of people from the region, as part of the North Texas Commission, discussions.”

West said that while he does not gamble, however, he understands the economic benefits estimated to be in the millions.

“My feeling is from a personal standpoint, I’m agnostic on it. However, from doing the right thing for the region, I’m in supportive in support of it,” West said. “We want to be in the driver’s seat. Dallas should be the leader in this, just like we are in everything else. And we should be setting the stage for what it would look like, both to benefits and controlling any problems that would come from, the gambling as well.”

While there has been growing buzz over casino gambling in Texas, Patrick Brophey with the North Texas Commission, a lobby and advocacy group, said legalization in the 2025 legislative session remains uncertain and complicated.

“Anytime you’re talking about amending the state’s constitution, it’s got to be an uphill battle. And it should be,” Brophey said. “You really get a laundry list of issues, and I think that all concerns are valid.”

West said he also has some concerns about what a casino in North Texas could look like.

“Would we support one license in the city or more? And if we do, where do they go? What kind of zoning would that look like? How would we want to tax it? Where do we want to use the tax revenue? How would we police it? What would we do in terms of social services for people who have gambling addiction problems?” West said.

NTC said it aims to bring all sides to the table for an open discussion and study.

“We want to learn directly from the experience of, industry leaders, nonprofit leaders, faith-based public safety, you name it,” Brophey said. “The North Texas Commission has not taken an official stance on the issue in past sessions. We still have not taken a stance on it for this upcoming session, but we wanted to be able to study the issue regardless of our public policy position. That’s what led us to launch this exploratory committee on gaming.”

Groups can request to apply to the committee which is set to launch in October.

“The committee applications are open right now. We’ve received quite a bit of interest. It’s our intent to keep it to a limited group that is fully representative of the region. And we will close that application at the end of September,” Brophey said.

The study could run from 12 to 18 months.

“If you think there’s going to be an impact brought by gaming, we want to understand what they think about the issue and then, employ them to study it as well,” Brophey said. “Certainly, grounded in facts, looking directly at economic impact, job creation and what that might yield. If, North Texas does receive a destination, casino after this law is passed in the future….  We hope to run it parallel in large part to the next legislative session.”

The study is aimed to help legislators make an informed vote on the matter.

NBC 5 reached out to a spokesperson for Las Vegas Sands. We are still waiting for a response.