A pair of sports betting bills passed through the Texas House Committee on States Affairs earlier this week by a vote of 9-3.
The next stop for the bills will be the House Committee on Calendars. If they get though that Committee they could potentially end up on the House floor for discussion and vote.
Sports betting fans in Texas should not start celebrating quite yet. Even if the bills were somehow to pass through the House, they are a long shot to pass through the Senate before the end of the legislative session on May 31.
While the bills, known as HB1942 and HJR102 were discussed in the Committee on State Affairs hearing concerns were raised over a 10 percent proposed tax rate, and a $500,000 state licensing fee. The Kickapoo Tribe also a voiced their opposition to the bill during the hearing.
If the bills were to pass through the House and Senate they would end up on the ballot for voters to decide the fate of sports betting in the state. Getting to the voters seems like a tall task as the bills would need to receive two-third support in both the House and Senate.
According to local media reports the support is definitely lacking in the Senate. Texas Lieutenant Governor told local media in March that “Right now, there are no votes in the Senate, there’s no support I can see. There wasn’t when the session began and there’s not now with the numbers to pass a bill.”