Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sees a future with legal sports betting in Texas after the state flipped to Democrat in the midterm elections.
Several of Texas’ newly elected officials have expressed a previously absent openness to legalizing sports betting in The Lone Star State.
- Jones is a longstanding supporter of legal sports betting.
- Texas’ outgoing Lt. Gov. promised to nix all sports betting legislation.
- Jones said his interests are defined by what benefits the Cowboys.
Jones is never shy to share his opinion on a variety of topics, including his beloved Cowboys. But with Texas walking a political path it hasn’t in decades, he is speaking up for the legalization of in-state sports betting.
“It is a plus in my mind with the best place in the world for sports, Texas, for us to have the gaming and hopefully the new turnover, you might say, in the politics will see it that way,” he said in an interview with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas last Friday.
Texas is one of 11 states that have not legalized sports betting ever since a federal ban was repealed in 2018. The industry has generated billions in tax revenue in the years since.
Jones has been aware of the missed financial opportunities for years. In 2024, he claimed that Texas was losing “huge amounts of revenue” as other nearby states legalized online betting, while Texas remained stagnant.
Back in 2021, he said he believed that gambling could eventually become standard practice inside state lines.
“The benefits can go in Texas, could adhere to the right kind of people, or some property tax,” he said during a KRLD radio interview in January 2023. “Certainly help educate our great state’s children. All of those things can be enhanced by something that’s presently going on in a big, big way.”
Jones backs sports betting push
Hopes of legalizing Texas sports betting have been dead on arrival in recent years. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who led the Senate, vowed to kill any pro-gambling legislation that had a chance of becoming a law — a promise on which he delivered several times.
But last week, Patrick suffered an unexpected loss to Vikki Goodwin (D) that opened the door. Prediction markets believed that the incumbent was likely to win, with Kalshi users giving him a 78% chance of victory in the weeklong build-up to voting.
Unlike Patrick, Goodwin previously said that she believed the future of sports betting should be left to voters’ discretion. She did not personally endorse or criticize legal gambling.
Goodwin was also just one of several Democrats who flipped Texas’ political climate upside down. James Talarico (D) became the first Democratic U.S. Senator from Texas since 1993, and Gina Hinojosa became the first leftist to win their gubernatorial campaign since the 1990 election.
Jones has historically supported Republican politicians. He donated over $1 million to Republican causes, including President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. and incumbent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) campaign.
He also recently donated $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, which creates and implements humanitarian programs.
However, Jones told the radio station that his loyalty lay with his football team above any other interests.
“I'm really apolitical. I really can't afford to be a party because our fans are all parties,” he said. “When I have something that will help the Cowboys, then I'm all in. But it's all about the Cowboys.
“I do everything that I can possibly do to make the Cowboys interesting, entertaining, have fans come to the stadium, have people watch us on television. That's my 99 and nine-tenths percent reason for doing anything.”
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Impact of legal sports betting in Texas
Jones’ Cowboys are the most valuable team in the world and have been since 2016, according to Forbes. Their $13 billion net value is $2.5 billion more than the second-place Los Angeles Rams.
Meanwhile, the sports betting industry is at its peak during the NFL season. Texas, sportsbooks, affiliates, and land-based partners would all stand to gain substantial increases in revenue if legalization was approved.
All newly-elected officials will take their places in office in January 2027.
