Texas was the white whale to the late Sheldon Adelson’s Captain Ahab. He could not conquer the beast — getting the state to legalize widespread gambling. Now, his widow, Miriam Adelson, has inherited that quest. Despite bundles of campaign cash and buying a professional basketball team, the efforts still aren’t working. 

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Extraordinary lobbying efforts and big campaign contributions centered on legalizing casinos in Texas have emboldened the state’s anti-gaming community and are actively hurting the chances that the Lone Star State will legalize sports betting next year.

That’s according to a monthly report on sports betting in the U.S. by analysts from Southern California advisory firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, which removed Texas from its list of states “likely to legalize sports betting in 2025.” The firm believes ramped-up gambling opposition would keep the state — the second largest behind California without legal sports betting — on the sidelines.

The analysts blame Las Vegas Sands Corp., which has spent millions of dollars during the past decade on failed efforts to legalize casinos in Texas. The company is again spearheading a push for a casino bill heading into the state’s biennial legislative session.

The Texas Tribune reported in May that Miriam Adelson, who owns 53 percent of Las Vegas Sands, donated $9 million to the Texas Defense Fund political action committee, which helped Republican House incumbents in the state’s primary election.

Separately, Adelson spent $3.5 billion in December to acquire a 73 percent ownership stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. The team, which lost in the NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics, is expected to push for a new arena in the Dallas area, one that’s more than likely connected to a future hotel-casino resort operated by Las Vegas Sands.

"In order for [the Mavericks] to be able to compete financially, we had to be able to say what comes next for the arena," Mavericks co-owner Mark Cuban said at a sports economics forum in Dallas earlier this month. 

Cuban, who retained a 27 percent stake in the team and continues to oversee basketball operations, said the casino is key to the project because “the 10 percent of the people who gamble pay for everything else.”

Business leaders were briefed on the supposed benefits of destination gaming by Sands Senior Vice President Andy Abboud at a recent event hosted by the North Texas Commission, a public-private partnership between Dallas-area businesses and local governments. The commission is forming an exploratory committee on the issue. 

All the money and all the talk has only emboldened Texas’ anti-gaming faction, which is led primarily by Republicans in the Texas State Senate, Eilers & Krejcik analyst Chris Krafcik told investors.

The firm noted the Texas House passed an online sports betting bill in 2023 that was backed by the major sports betting companies, a coalition of Texas’ pro sports teams and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, only to see it scuttled in the Senate. That move backed up Krafcik’s belief that “the Senate is the chamber that matters, and things there are not moving in the right direction.”

Krafcik wrote that the Texas Republican Party has instructed lawmakers to oppose any gambling expansion and any budget with funds that rely on legal gambling.

“Incredibly, [the party’s platform] even explicitly addresses the warmer reception gambling expansion has had in the House,” Krafcik wrote.

He now expects Texas could legalize sports betting no earlier than 2027, with a launch occurring in time for the NFL season opener in fall 2028.

Icahn’s Caesars stake may not concern company leaders

Now that the number of Caesars Entertainment shares owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn are known, members of the company’s boardroom are probably breathing a bit easier.

The 88-year-old corporate raider owns a little more than 2.4 million shares in the casino operator, paying just less than $97 million in May, he reported in a 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.

The shares took a hit recently and Icahn’s stock was valued at $90 million as of last week. 

Caesars has more than 216 million shares outstanding on the Nasdaq. So Icahn’s roughly 1 percent stake isn’t going to move the company’s needle. 

Six years ago, Ichan controlled 25 percent of Caesars and oversaw a corporate management shake-up. Three of his associates were appointed to the company’s board, which led to the eventual sale of Caesars to the much smaller Eldorado Resorts for $17.3 billion. The deal closed in 2020.

When Bloomberg and CNBC first reported the stock purchase, questions rose about any renewed interest in the company by Icahn. Caesars operates 52 casinos and resorts in 18 states including 15 properties in Nevada. The speculation has since quieted.

Meanwhile, Icahn and his firm Icahn Enterprises paid a total of $2 million in penalties to settle charges leveled by the SEC for failing to disclose pledges of the company’s securities as collateral for billions of dollars in personal loans.

MGM Resorts sets sights on Brazil's online gaming opportunity

As Brazil seeks to convert its questionable gray market online gaming industry into a legal tax-paying entity, MGM Resorts sees an opportunity.

According to MGM Resorts, Brazil’s gray market — a business that is unofficial, but not illegal — has more than 20 million active players with an estimated market size of $3 billion. Through its BetMGM digital platform, the casino company is seeking a sports betting and online gaming license in the country in partnership with Grupo Globo, Latin America's largest media company.

"Brazil is one of the most exciting and vibrant emerging gaming markets in the world, and no one has more exposure and expertise in this market than Grupo Globo,” MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle said in a statement last week.

JMP Securities gaming analyst Jordan Bender compared Brazil’s online gaming legalization efforts to those in Ontario, Canada, where the gray market was closed a few years ago.

Bender suggested a legal market in Brazil could produce $4 billion to $6 billion in annual gaming revenue, putting the country on par with revenue produced by Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

“We do not have a good sense of what total investment will be for a company like BetMGM,” Bender wrote in a research note. He said a gaming industry contact suggested the large companies could spend “hundreds of millions of dollars” for marketing and consolidation through mergers and acquisitions.

What I'm Reading

🏈 Betfred USA CEO: Option to exit the market altogether is ‘on the table’ — Amber-Ainsley Pritchard, EGR Global

BetFred operates the sportsbook at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Casino operator Mohegan Gaming is already departing the property.

✈️ U.S. Travel Association commends task force on global sporting events — Mia Taylor, TravelPulse

U.S. Travel CEO Geoff Freeman says the task force “is essential for our success as we enter a mega-decade of sporting events in the U.S.” 

🧢 Missouri voters to decide on legalized sports betting — Brent Solomon, KSDK-TV St. Louis

Missouri lawmakers have long been reluctant to legalize sports betting. Now, voters will have a say.

🎰 New Jersey casino, sports and online gambling revenue up 8 percent in July; in-person win still down — Nicholas Huba, The Press of Atlantic City

The state’s racetracks, sports betting and online gaming fueled the growth while Atlantic City’s casinos saw a 6 percent decline in gaming revenue.

Penn wants ESPN Bet to become ‘America’s sportsbook’

With football season approaching, former Disney Corp. executive Aaron LaBerge, who has taken over Penn Entertainment’s digital gaming business, said the partnership with ESPN could change the company's sports betting prospects.

“ESPN and Penn share a common vision,” LaBerge said on Penn’s Aug. 8 second-quarter conference call. “We want to make ESPN Bet America’s sportsbook. Sports betting is a key pillar of ESPN’s future growth.”

Penn transitioned its sports betting brand from Barstool to EPSN Bet late last fall, missing out on roughly half the football season. Penn paid $1.5 billion for the ESPN brand and to extinguish the Barstool platform.

Truist Securities gaming analyst Barry Jonas said the upcoming football season isn’t make-or-break for ESPN Bet.

“There are no ‘Hail Mary’ expectations,” Jonas wrote in a research note after hosting an investor meeting with Penn’s top management. 

A boost could come from New York, where ESPN Bet could be licensed by the end of the month. Penn is also in the process of rebranding its retail sportsbooks as ESPN Bet.

Penn operates M Resort in Henderson and two small casinos in the northeastern Nevada community of Jackpot. The sportsbooks in those properties are under the William Hill US sports betting business managed by Caesars Entertainment.