News

(Also, please check out our X.com account, which is updated more frequently: @NoGamblingInTX)

Legal sports betting linked to sharp increases in violent crime, study finds As legalized sports betting sweeps across the country, new research shows the policy shift comes with a hidden public safety cost: a measurable rise in violent and impulsive crime on game days. – Rice University (December 16, 2025)

Governor Abbott doesn’t support changing the Texas Constitution to legalize casino gambling – When asked why not, Abbott said, “Because we’ve seen increasingly problems that go along with gaming. Whether it be addiction or whether it be things that are happening in sporting events and athletes who are on the take. And so, there have been more red flags raised. That caused us to have to pause, step back, take a look at this and make sure that we wouldn’t do anything that would be harmful, either to the people of the state of Texas, the culture that we have in the state, or to sporting events that we have in the state.”- CBS News Texas (December 7, 2025)

The Next Opioid Crisis – Here’s an outstanding short article about how the spread of gambling is creating THE NEXT OPIOID CRISIS. Excerpt: “The most profitable companies all do the same thing: They tap into our flaws and monetize them, then pretend it’s innovation rather than exploitation. We need to have a wider debate about the society we want. Rather than celebrating gambling, we should embrace a different kind of risk: asking someone out, approaching a stranger, investing in relationships with friends and potential mates.” – Prof. Scott Galloway (November 21, 2025)

NCAA study finds over one-third of D1 men’s basketball student-athletes are harassed by gamblers Last week, the NCAA released findings of a new study that revealed 36% of Division I men’s basketball student-athletes reported experiencing social media abuse related to sports betting within the last year, while 29% reported having interacted with a student on campus who had placed a bet on their team. – NCAA Media Center (November 18, 2025)

N.Y.C. Casino Bids Promise an Economic Boom. The Reality Might Differ As the number of gambling houses has grown across the United States, they are no longer the tourism magnets that they used to be, experts say. – New York Times (November 12, 2025)

‘I’m Shocked, Shocked to Find That Gambling Is Going On in Here’ On Thursday, the sports world faced one of its worst nightmares. The Justice Department announced the indictments of Chauncey Billups, the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and Terry Rozier, a guard for the Miami Heat, on gambling-related charges. – New York Times (October 26, 2025)

There’s Now a Casino in Everyone’s Pocket. For Some Young Men It’s a Near-Fatal Gamble – How FanDuel and DraftKings Have Helped Fuel Gambling Addiction. Americans gambled $150 billion through online sportsbooks last year. Far too many lost nearly everything. – Rolling Stone Magazine (October 12, 2025)

The Tragedy That Has Befallen Baseball – So short-sighted: the money the professional sports leagues make from partnering with sports gambling operators is a fraction of the value that inures to the leagues from games’ integrity. The leagues have placed the latter at high risk — because the explosion of sports gambling is corrupting sports. Don’t mess with Texas: DraftKings, Las Vegas Sands, Bet MGM, FanDuel: go away. You’re not wanted in Texas. You addict people and financially ruin addicts’ families … by design. You call it “marketing” and “customer retention.” – New York Times (September 6, 2025)

Sports Betting: America’s Big Gamble – CNN (September 3, 2025)

The Evil Secrets Of Casino Profits – The gambling industry profits from addiction while misleading the public with manipulated statistics and non-stop advertising. In this video, we expose how 86% of online gambling revenue comes from addicted players, why gambling harm is underreported, and how organizations are being used to protect casino profits. If you want to understand the real impact of casinos, sports gambling, and online gambling on American families, this video breaks it down with facts the gambling industry prefers be obscured. – ODAAT Gambling Awareness (August 2, 2025)

Texans Against Gambling Files Amicus Brief with the Texas Supreme Court – We asked the Texas Supreme Court to review an appeals court decision that cracked open a door for retail (cash) poker gambling businesses in Texas. The appeals court did so without ruling on the legality of those for-profit gambling businesses. (Those businesses are illegal, by the way.) (July 31, 2025)

The Scourge of ‘Spot-Fixing’ Is Coming for American Sports – U.S. sports has been riddled with gambling scandals in recent years, but MLB’s latest investigation raises the specter that one of the most pernicious forms of corruption has finally arrived -The Wall Street Journal (July 8, 2025)

Texans Against Gambling and Allies File An Amicus Brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit – We and some allies filed an amicus brief in the high profile federal appellate lawsuit against gambling platform Kalshi, opposing Kalshi’s attempt to circumvent states’ laws prohibiting gambling (or, in many states, regulating gambling). Also on our side: a coalition amicus brief filed by 34 states’ attorney generals! (June 16, 2025)

How Texas Officials Invited the Rigging of the State Lottery – Texas lottery executives blessed a scheme that ensured one player would win a $95 million jackpot in 2023. The caper has underscored a sense that almost nothing is on the level. … The Texas House zeroed out the funding for the state lottery in its budget this month. – New York Times (April 20, 2025) [Noted elsewhere: DraftKings involvement.]

Advocating for Addiction – “Every day, Reddit forums like r/ProblemGambling and r/GamblingAddiction are flooded with stories of people—often young men—struggling with online sports betting. Many of the anecdotes are heart-wrenching, but even more disturbing are the numbers: a recent study estimates one in ten young men in the United States are addicted gamblers. Each year, nearly 20% of them will consider suicide.” – Campaign for Accountability (April 15, 2025)

How a Secretive Gambler Called ‘The Joker’ Took Down the Texas Lottery – Early this month, [Texas’s] lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, called the crew’s win “the biggest theft from the people of Texas in the history of Texas.” – Wall Street Journal (April 12, 2025)

Former NFL player in Texas on trial for a bribery kickback scheme at Houston ISD has a severe gambling addiction, his attorney says … “[H]e is alleged to have falsified his tax returns and used his businesses to fund his poker habit. He also allegedly bribed district employees to favor his businesses and overbilled customers for landscaping services, which caused “millions of dollars in loss” to a school district that paid his company, a 2021 indictment states. … [T}he accused criminal consistently lost — as much as $300,000 in one session.” – Poker News (April 10, 2025)

Growing concern over sports gambling – Twenty percent of high-risk problem gamblers have attempted suicide. – NBC News broadcast (video) (April 8, 2025)

Inside the Rise of Sports Gambling – ABC News: “Gambling is the only addiction where you can convince yourself that continuing the very pattern that got you into that situation … … will cure it.” – ABC News (April 8, 2025)

America’s Gambling Epidemic – Ten minute YouTube video (April 3, 2025)

March Madness Masks a Hidden Epidemic – The perfect storm for problem gambling is forming … While many people can gamble recreationally, a shocking 86 percent of the gambling industry’s profits come from just 5 percent of gamblers, according to the organization Stop Predatory Gambling. These individuals are not simply playing for fun—they are losing everything—their finances, relationships, and mental health deteriorate, often before loved ones even realize there’s a problem. …The emotional rollercoaster of gambling—exhilarating highs and devastating lows—can fuel anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. The financial and relational damage left in its wake can last for years. – Psychology Today (March 25, 2025).

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sports Gambling (March 19, 2025):

The danger of sports gambling addiction – CBS Sunday Morning (March 30, 2025):

Irving residents strongly oppose casino-style gambling proposal at town hall meeting – At the Town Hall meeting on Friday night, the proposal for casino-style gambling in Irving faced strong opposition and outcry. The majority of residents voiced their opinion that such a venue has no place in the city’s present or future. – CBS News Texas (Channel 11) (March 14, 2025)

Casino Clash: Irving Residents Deal A Royal Flush To Las Vegas Sands’ Plans – Representatives from the Las Vegas Sands Corporation faced overwhelming public opposition during its first presentation on a potential casino project in Irving. .. Many carried signs stating “Don’t Las Vegas My Irving” and “No Casino In Irving.” – Dallas Express (March 14, 2025)

Casinos and sports betting won’t win approval in Texas House, group of GOP members say – A dozen Texas House Republicans who replaced pro-gambling lawmakers said this week they would oppose “any attempt to expand gambling” this session — a setback for efforts to legalize casinos and sports betting in the state.- Texas Tribune (March 12, 2025)

Growing Health Concern Regarding Gambling Addiction in the Age of Sportsbooks – The results of this time series study suggest that access to sportsbooks, sports wagers, and potential help-seeking for gambling addiction increased substantially and highlight the need to address the health implications of sportsbooks, including recognition and treatment of gambling problems and their broader societal implications. – Journal of the American Medical Association (February 17, 2025)

The Cost of Chance – Texas Public Policy Foundation study: if casinos open in Texas “an excess of 4.5 million adult Texans would have their lives negatively impacted by their gambling, with 642,965 of them having their lives severely upended.” – Texas Public Policy Foundation (January 7, 2025)

Legalizing Sports Gambling was a Terrible Bet – Washington Post editorial (December 29, 2024)

NCAA, NFL Players Association Urge Congress to Rein in Sports Gambling – ESPN (December 17, 2024)

Online Gambling Losses in the U.S. to Exceed $1 Trillion by 2028 – Gambling News (December 12, 2024) (Not after we at Texans Against Gambling and Stop Predatory Gambling succeed. )

Why Online Gambling is the Next Opioid Crisis – Breaking Points (short video) (December 10, 2024)

Sports Gambling Hurts American Men – Newsweek (December 3, 2024)

Time for a Public Health Response to Gambling – The Lancet (November 2024) “The commercial gambling sector promotes its products and protects its interests by adopting corporate practices designed not only to influence consumer behaviour, but also the narrative and political processes around regulation—with a tendency to focus on individual responsibility rather than broader policy changes. Such practices are not new and have been used by other harmful industries, but in today’s digitalised, interconnected, and borderless world they pose increasing threats to public health.“

The Predatory Gambling Industry Is Misleading Voters – Jacobin (October 24, 2024)

Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Huge Mistake – The Atlantic (September 23, 2024) “The evidence is convincing: The betting industry is ruining lives.”

Long shot to legalize casinos is the Dallas Morning News headline (June 3, 2024).  “… [T]here is likely not going to be any meaningful action on [casino gambling] in the Texas House” in the next legislative session that begins in January 2025, Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen said, if the Texas Senate continues to not support casinos in Texas.

–Today, May 29, 2024, one of the nation’s most respected documentary film programs, Fault Lines, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning show, released a must-watch groundbreaking short film into online gambling operators and the devastation they are causing upon millions of Americans, especially young people.

Please watch the film here: https://youtu.be/fQ9qp9UftEE?si=7Mrc9VGrdX8m4Q2e

–The Dallas Morning News recently published an op-ed titled “A bad gamble for Texas.”  We agree with the author’s perspectives on why sports gambling bookies harm, and casinos would harm, Texas families and businesses.  And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently published a news article about a Texas GOP convention delegate passing out flyers that read “Stop sports betting in Texas.”  Kudos.  Both the op-ed and the news article are available here:

–Listen to Austin radio station KOOP-FM’s program Texas Beware: Predatory Gambling for Dummies with host Austin’s Pedro Gatos and guests Stop Predatory Gambling National Executive Director Les Bernal and TAG board member Russ Coleman (April 29, 2024)

–A scandal involving the Texas Lottery is unfolding.  Hat tip to the Houston Chronicle’s Eric Dexheimer for excellent investigative reporting.  (April 22, 2024)

–The Wall Street Journal recently published a strong essay on how the “responsible gambling” campaigns pushed by the gambling industry and public officials are shams (April 12, 2024)

US Supreme Court Ruling: Murphy v. NCAA

Interstate Wire Act of 1961

Funding Education with the Lottery

  • Read former Board Chair Rodger Weem’s opinion article on funding education with the lottery, published in the Baptist Standard (April 25, 2018).