Las Vegas Sands To Continue Push For Texas Casinos Via PAC
Las Vegas Sands continues their push to bring casinos to Texas. After a modest win was achieved for the casino giant in Irving, Texas, the corporation will push to achieve further victory in the 2026 election cycle.
In March 2025, the Irving City Council allowed for land near the former Texas Stadium to be rezoned for use as a destination resort. The primary push for this resort was made by the corporation Las Vegas Sands, who own the land and have been angling to legalize gambling in Texas since 2023.
The March meeting was heated, with almost 200 residents signing up to speak during the public comment section of the meeting. The meeting took seven hours to complete, and ended with the Irving Planning and Zoning Commission voting 5 to 4 to recommend rezoning. However, this vote came at a cost for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which had to withdraw the casino section of its plan in order to have the rezoning motion approved.
Texas is one of the toughest states on casinos, with strict policies in place to inhibit gambling in the Lone Star State. While scratch cards, lotteries, and horse and greyhound racing are legal in the state, there are strict laws criminalizing sports betting, owning a place of gambling, and the promotion of gambling.
The gambling laws in Texas State show that even though daily fantasy sports and online gambling aren’t common in the state, sweepstakes casinos and crypto casinos fall into a legal gray area. A detailed analysis of these platforms reveal that this is because online casinos do not wager in traditional currency and instead allow players to spin for a wide variety of prizes. Las Vegas Sands, however, is lobbying to change these strict laws and is optimistic about the future of gambling in the state.
Las Vegas Sands has teamed up with the Adelson family for this endeavor, an influential family that holds a major stake in the Dallas Mavericks. The Adelsons, specifically the Las Vegas Sands (LVS) chair Miriam Adelson, have pledged a whopping $9.1 million to the Texas Sand PAC, a political action committee that has been formed to try to sway state government. The intentions of this PAC are to influence legislators to one day allow for gambling to be permitted on Texas state soil.
Miriam Adelson took over as chair of LVS after the death of her husband, Sheldon Adelson, in 2021. Although the company was started in Las Vegas, LVS has moved entirely offshore. LVS has focused its operations in Asia, specifically in the region of Macau in China. Las Vegas Sands Corporation seems to be in the process of trying to reshore operations in the United States.
As they have already purchased and zoned land in Irving, Texas, the next step is to fund the Texas Sands PAC and use political heft to move legislation. This will not be new to Adelson, who is an involved Republican and a top donor to President Donald Trump.
2026 will be a critical year in Texas politics, with all 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 16 out of 31 state Senate seats up for election. Because the legalization of gambling in Texas would require an amendment to the state’s constitution.
However, if this amendment is made, Las Vegas Sands could potentially bring 18,000 jobs to the state, employing staff at the destination resort in Irving. However, with the rezoning ruling in March requiring LVS to remove the casino section from their building plans. The company representative present at the ruling stated that the company would revoke the billions of dollars it previously promised for the project. He also stated that the creation of full-time jobs from this venture would be unlikely.
Local Texans have been vocal about the Lone Star State’s unwillingness to have gambling become an in-state practice. When Las Vegas Sands’ rezoning request was approved with amendments in March, it was loudly booed by the community, who had gathered for the meeting. The Second Amendment was only approved after 2 A.M.
Although many residents express resistance to the idea of Texas becoming a gambling hub, it is unlikely that this destination resort will be built without the financial support LVS would offer if casinos were on the premises.