To comprehend the financial mega-muscle coming to Dallas in 2024, a little simple math:
According to Forbes, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ net worth is $14.5 billion. The Dallas Mavericks’ Mark Cuban is worth $6.2 billion, Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi $3.7 billion and the Texas Rangers’ recently christened championship boss Ray Davis $2.9 billion. Add it all up, and it’s a robust $27.3 billion, or …
Less — by $6 billion, mind you — than the unfathomably deep pockets of Las Vegas casino magnate Miriam Adelson. With son-in-law Patrick Dumont, Adelson heads the group that built The Venetian and The Palazzo on the Vegas strip. This week, the NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved her acquisition of the Mavericks for $3.5 billion.
Adelson has the power to prompt Cuban to sell his beloved Mavs, but is her $33 billion empire and considerable influence with Republican lawmakers in Texas enough to bring legalized gambling to the Lone Star State? If so, are the Mavs long for Dallas?
Tom Landry and Don Carter are rolling over in their graves. But, by embracing the burgeoning, inevitable industries of gambling and sports betting in Texas, Cuban and Jones are about to be rolling in even more money.
Landry (the iconic original coach of the Cowboys) and Carter (founding father of the Mavericks) were principled men with beliefs in the Christian faith. Landry spent much of his offseason volunteering for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Carter went to church twice on Sunday and always removed his trademark Stetson indoors “because Momma raised me right.”
Doubt if they ever made even a friendly wager in their lives.
These days the custodians of the Mavs and Cowboys are Cuban and Jones, characters who know their way around a good party, wheeler-dealers who are adept at profiting from businesses that Landry and Carter wouldn’t have touched.
If you travel outside Texas, you realize that casino gambling and sports betting have become commonplace. But here in the deep-red, Republican-controlled Bible Belt, putting money on “games of chance” is still a crime.
As of this year, 37 states have legalized gambling. In 2022, New Jersey took in a whopping $2.6 billion in net profit from sports betting, and in its first 10 weeks after allowing online gambling, New York raked in $4 billion in gross revenue. Even without legal avenues, estimates are that Texans bet $6 billion a year on sports.
Despite that potential windfall, ultra-conservative gambling opponent Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced last May that online sports betting isn’t coming to Texas any time soon. Plano Rep. Jeff Leach authored a bill to legalize sports gambling, and the House considered “destination resort” casinos.
Both ideas were summarily quashed in the state’s Republican-dominated Senate.
“I’ve said repeatedly there is little to no support for expanding gaming,” Patrick said. “We don’t waste time on bills without overwhelming GOP support. Texas remains a red state.”
Against that daunting backdrop, Cuban and Jones are betting on Texas.
Jones is fiscally red; Cuban socially blue. Both covet, above all else, green.
Do they need even more financial and political oomph to twist Republican arms in Austin? Enter Adelson, who last year donated $1 million to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. In 2018, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump.
Sure enough, she’s mega — MAGA — rich.
“When you think of all the places you want to save up to vacation, Texas isn’t one of them … and I think resort gaming would have a huge impact.” – Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks
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As far away as gambling seems here, it’s also creeping oh so close. That’s why Cuban is selling a 70-percent chunk of the Mavs to casino owners and why Jones was an early investor in DraftKings sports betting company and has long partnered with Oklahoma’s WinStar Casino and the Texas Lottery.
Said Jones recently, “I do play the lottery … I’m a big fan of what it brings in for our state’s education.” In a separate interview, he called WinStar “one of the best brands in the world.”
Each week thousands of Texans take their money across state lines to gamble at casinos in Louisiana and Oklahoma. Turn on the TV and there’s Troy Aikman starring in commercials for Choctaw Casino. Coming soon: similar ads with Texas Rangers legend Pudge Rodriguez and Aikman’s old teammate and 2024 Pro Football Hall-of-Fame nominee Darren Woodson. Oh, and where were many Texas high-school football playoff games played this month? Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, just across the street from the home of the 2023 World Series champions.
By winning three Super Bowls in four years, Jones became a DFW hero despite firing Landry. Cuban surely made Carter cringe when he introduced scantily clad dancers and blaring rap music to Mavs games, but he invited the founder on the stage to celebrate the team’s first championship in Miami in 2011.
The Mavs’ contract to play in American Airlines Center, which received an $18 million facelift last spring, runs through 2030. That means Jones, Cuban and Adelson have six(ish) years to bring gambling to Texas and a destination resort/area to Dallas-Fort Worth.
When she takes over the business side of the Mavs in early 2024 — Cuban is retaining 25 percent and control of basketball operations — Adelson will become the wealthiest sports owner in the U.S. Her and Cuban’s visions are aligned, focused on a casino/arena complex.
The wheels are already in motion. Though the plot of vacant land in Dallas that was once home to Reunion Arena was thought to be the front runner for such a development, a subdivision of Adelson’s company earlier this year bought 108 acres along Highway 114 in Irving, a stone’s throw from the site of old Texas Stadium. Dallas County tax records list the property’s value at $22 million.
Said Cuban last summer, unveiling his ultimate intentions for anyone paying attention: “When you think of all the places you want to save up to vacation, Texas isn’t one of them. There’s no real destination here. That’s a problem, and I think resort gaming would have a huge impact.”
He and Jones aren’t officially partnering in a unified front to bring casino gambling to Texas, but let’s just say introductions aren’t necessary.
“Mark didn’t make (the decision to sell) being dumb,” Jones said. “I promise you, this will be in the best interest of sports and Mavericks fans. Miriam and her group are fine people. She’s outstanding. She’s a doctor, and is savvy, savvy, savvy. She’s got a good organization with her there, and will unquestionably do a great job.”
Despite the Dream Team that’s willing to take on the Texas Legislature, which doesn’t meet again until January 2025, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has his doubts.
“That’s not something that just because the Legislature said can happen, just happens,” Johnson said during a Dallas Regional Chamber luncheon earlier this month. “I haven’t been a part of those conversations. I don’t feel like they’re really happening. At some point, if Mark’s serious about really having casino gambling and he’s serious about having it in Dallas, that’s a conversation a lot of people are willing to have. But we haven’t had it.”
Cracking Texas’ conservative code and unleashing gambling is a tall order for even Cuban, Jones and their new power partner. But …
Wanna bet against them?