State Rep. Jeff Leach pulled out his smartphone and, like so many other Texans this month, prepared to bet on a game in the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Plano Republican didn’t submit the wager, wanting only to demonstrate how easy it can be done.

“I didn’t do it!” Leach professed to a Texas House committee Wednesday.

Although 35 states have passed laws to legalize sports gambling, Texans who want to get in on the action are limited to placing an illegal bet through a bookie or an offshore account. Gambling supporters say those options are not only burdensome, but block the state from a reliable income stream.

Estimates produced at Wednesday’s hearing show Texas is missing out on $180 million a year in tax revenue from lost bets that could be used for education or public safety. Beyond that, supporters say legalizing sports gambling would protect bettors by shifting regulation from potentially unscrupulous foreign groups to the state.

“The hundreds of thousands of Texans who are placing sports bets illegally should be allowed to come out of the shadows,” Leach said.

The option to legalize sports gambling became available to states after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a federal prohibition in 2018.  

Although Texas is moving further down the field this legislative session, crossing the goal line remains a long shot in a mostly conservative, slow-moving state that remains a holdout against another socially controversial measure: the lawful use of recreational marijuana. Beyond the moral considerations, leaning into sports betting to raise tax revenue might also prove futile given the state’s staggering $32.7 billion budget surplus.

That same analysis might also apply to legislation laid out Wednesday from state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, that would authorize the development of eight high-end, resort-style casinos.

“The juice ain’t worth the squeeze,” said Rob Kohler, a consultant for Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

Both gambling measures would require a constitutional amendment, meaning they first need approval by two-thirds of the members in both the House, which seems possible, and the Senate, which seems less likely. If that burden is met, the proposals would be left to Texas voters to decide in the November election. 

“I think the gaming interests have made a lot of progress this session solving one of their largest problems historically, which has been crafting an agreement among the various competing interests in the sector,” Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, told the American-Statesman. “But I don’t see evidence that they have solved the problem of the lieutenant governor’s lack of interest – at best – in bringing a gambling bill to the floor of the Senate, based on public pronouncements and actual activity in the Senate.”

Opening the state to casinos has generated conditional support from Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan, but it does not appear to be a priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate.

Wednesday’s hearing before the House State Affairs committee marked the first public testimony on the casino or sports betting legislation.

Christopher Grove, of gambling research firm Eilers & Krejcik, testified that Texas could expect to generate $2.3 billion in gross gaming revenue after four or five years, with $180 million returning to the state through taxes. Grove said that he based that analysis on revenue produced by states where sports betting is legal.

Testifying in favor of the bill were lawyers representing the Houston Astros, the Dallas Cowboys and the San Antonio Spurs. The franchises are part of the Sports Betting Alliance, a coalition of the state’s major professional sports teams and gambling operators like FanDuel and DraftKings. The group turned heads last year when it introduced its spokesman: former Gov. Rick Perry.

The pro-casino push is heavily funded by casino giant Las Vegas Sands and its political action committees, which gave more than $3 million to Texas candidates in last year’s election.

Pro-gambling talking points made Wednesday were countered by testimony on the destructive effect sports betting can have on the communities that allow it. 

A forthcoming study by Rutgers estimates 13% of New Jersey residents qualify for a gambling problem. In Illinois, an estimated 383,000 residents have a gambling problem, according to that state’s human services department. 

The impact includes higher rates in suicide, violence and debt.

“It’s designed to be addictive,” testified Russ Coleman, with Texans Against Gambling, which works to stop gambling expansion. He reasoned that letting a gambling addict place a bet on a smartphone is like “tethering a booze bottle to an alcoholic.”

The committee did not vote on the gambling legislation Wednesday but will likely take it up in the coming days.