Texas Casinos and Gambling

Short Summary: This page looks at the different forms of gambling in the State of Texas, discusses the legality of online gambling and gives a detailed listing of all of the casinos in the state.

Anyone who says, “Everything is bigger in Texas,” and believes it, has clearly not gambled in Texas. If they had went to Texas looking for casinos, they’d instead say, “Everything is virtually non-existent in Texas.”

Of course, Texas isn’t the MOST restrictive state when it comes to gambling, that designation belongs to Utah, with Hawaii only a hair behind. Still, there’s not going to be much out here for residents or visitors.

Greyhound Racing

One form of gambling that you’ll find almost exclusively in Texas (and three other states—soon to be two) is, unfortunately, greyhound racing. Texas is one of the few states that still allows this barbaric, “Sport,” in which dogs are actively mistreated. It’s a shame.

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Online Gambling

Update: According to KXAN, one of the bills that might receive a vote in the Legislature during the 2023 Legislative year concerns the authorization of mobile sports betting to operate in the state. It would have to be mobile, and almost certainly would have to go through the Texas Lottery, as the state does not have any Commercial land casinos. Quoting, in part:

“The legalization of mobile sports betting in Texas would mean implementing smart and efficient oversight to preserve the integrity of sporting events, empower Texans to safely participate in mobile sports betting, and fight illegal gambling,” Perry said in a press release. “Given that Texans are already participating in mobile sports betting, legalization would be a win for all involved.”

Both online sports betting and casinos are illegal in Texas — except for three casinos operating legally on Native American territory in the Lone Star State due to federal law. Despite casino-lobbying groups pouring millions of dollars into policymakers’ pockets in recent years, state lawmakers failed to move forward on legalizing either during the 2021 legislative session.

Separately, there is a bill that would authorize land-based Commercial Casinos in the state.

If either the mobile sports betting bill, land casino bill, or both, were to pass, then the issue would go directly to the voters in November of 2023.

Of course, we don’t suspect that the Texas government will ever allow that to happen, as big on personal freedom as those hypocrites would otherwise claim to be. It is our opinion that both land casino or mobile sports betting bills would be highly unlikely to pass, especially the latter given how fanatic any true Texan is about his or her sports teams, so we can’t envision the state ever giving the people a chance.

In the meantime, there are a number of offshore online casinos that have offered their services in Texas for years, if not over a decade, so do check out some of our top recommendations above!

In terms of online gambling, Texas statute makes it illegal to the extent that it is a form of gambling not sanctioned by the state. The code reads as follows:

Statute 47.01(1) makes it illegal to participate in any game solely or partially decided by chance other than any that may be state-sanctioned. The result of illegal gambling is a Class C Misdemeanor.

Pragmatically speaking, we can find no instance of any player facing criminal charges for merely playing at an online casino. Not only is it doubtful that the police would have any interest in enforcing this law against players, but there’s also the question: how would they know?

In any event, the state carries strict penalties for operators of gambling on any games that are not state-sanctioned, but overseas online casinos are obviously out of the reach of the jurisdiction. Naturally, we would not suggest having a casino that is based in the United States and offering service to Texas.

Charitable Gambling

Charitable Gaming is legal in the State of Texas, but is pretty severely restricted in many ways. For one thing, permitted organizations defined by the law as such:

Only a qualified religious society that has been in existence in Texas for at least 10 years; a qualified volunteer fire department that operates firefighting equipment, provides fire-fighting services and that does not pay its members other than nominal compensation; a qualified volunteer emergency medical service that does not pay its members other than nominal compensation; or a qualified 501(c) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization that has been in existence for at least three years may hold raffles in Texas under CREA. Individuals and for profit businesses may not hold raffles.

Are the only entities permitted to hold raffles. Fortunately, as long as they legally qualify, they do not have to register with the state or apply for any kind of licensing. Unfortunately, any such organization is limited to two (you read that right: T-W-O) raffles per calendar year. My advice on this would be to make them as BIG as possible so they count.

Cash prizes are also completely out of the question, so 50/50 raffles are a legal no-go in the state, which isn’t to say that they never happen anywhere. We imagine that some bars probably hold those kind of raffles, or perhaps even sports boards, as most states don’t strictly enforce these kinds of laws, or enforce them at all, unless someone complains.

Charitable poker and, “Casino nights,” are also completely out of the question in the state. Of course, that’s true with a good many states, so should come as no surprise in one that already has such a draconian anti-gambling stance.

Bingo is an interesting multi-step process that is left somewhat to Counties. Charitable Bingo (with plenty of regulation) is legal at the state level, but must also be voted in favor in a particular County within the state. Nearly 90% of Texas counties have some form of legalized charitable bingo, but some do not.

The state didn’t even authorize bingo until 1989, but the entities allowed to conduct it are essentially the same as those allowed to conduct raffles. One key difference is that such an organization must apply to the State Lottery Commission for a bingo license and there are certain fees and record-keeping associated with that.

The full text of the initial bingo laws can be found here.

And, good gravy, is that ridiculous! Bingo is such a simple game to operate and takes place all over the nation. If bingo laws can’t be condensed to a single page, then they are way more complicated than the activity justifies. I don’t even want to cut through all of this red tape to offer a summary…I’m not a lawyer. Usually, getting to the bottom of these sorts of regulations isn’t a problem for me, but this would take me hours just to read.

Machines Gambling—Sort of

Okay, so skill machines are technically permitted in Texas along with some sort of, “Eight line,” electronic game that I couldn’t imagine anyone ever really wanting to play. The permitted prizes for the game are not permitted to exceed ten times the bet amount, or five dollars, whichever of the two is greater. Could you imagine sitting down at a machine and saying, “I hope I win the five dollar jackpot!”? Maybe in 1892 that might have been a statement someone would make.

Except, you can’t even win five dollars. These machines fall under a ridiculous contrivance called the, “Fuzzy Animal law,” which basically says that they can offer prizes with a maximum value of five dollars. Fantastic. I’d be hard-pressed to go into a store (other than Five Below or a dollar store) and even find an item that costs less than five bucks. Maybe you can win a really small candle, or something.

Social Gambling

The only area where Texas has kind of a liberal gambling law is that virtually any form of social gambling is legal, provided such gambling is conducted within a private residence AND no entity is acting as the, “House,” by taking a rake or house edge. In other words, everything that the players put in has to come out in the form of 100% return-to-player.

What’s very important about this law is that it applies strictly to private locations, such as houses, to which the general public has no access. If a bunch of guys set up a poker game in a bar with no rake—that’s still illegal. If they go to one of their houses and set the game up—perfectly fine.

The only reason that we give Texas a little bit of credit here is because they do not make an attempt to restrict social gambling to certain kinds of games—which is to say—try to tell you what you can and can’t do in your own house. At least the Government will leave that much alone.

Casinos

Nope.

Don’t expect state authorized and regulated Commercial Casinos anytime soon, because the State of Texas seems firmly opposed to the Tribal Gaming (two casinos) that it already has.

They’re actively trying to get one of the two casinos closed, though their legal basis for doing so is highly questionable. The one casino that they couldn’t close if they wanted to—Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel—the Government still does everything it can to prevent them from having Class III (Vegas-Style) slot machines, as opposed to Class II Electronic Bingo games.

We would say that proves the state is VERY MUCH against casino gambling. Otherwise, why the hell wouldn’t you want to let the Tribal Casino have devices that will make them a more attractive gambling destination? It really just makes no sense, unless the goal is to put them out of business eventually.

Anyway, we’ll talk a bit about the two Tribal Casinos in Texas a little bit later on.

Texas Lottery

Of course, Texas has a very successful lottery department, even though that’s the worst form of gambling (return-to-player) even imaginable. No wonder they like it so much. That and state revenues, we suppose, but they’d do better in that regard by having VLT parlors similar to states such as West Virginia, South Dakota and Illinois.

The most recent Lottery Annual Report for the state we have is 2019, which can be found here.

So, let’s break it down!

Unfortunately, there’s not much to break down. Even though you could write a volume of encyclopedias with the length of this lottery report, Texas is pretty sneaky about combining all prizes awarded to players and does not even differentiate them on the basis of ticket types.

Sure, they’ll list the rounded amounts for each type of ticket they sold, that part’s fine…but when it comes to letting players know how much in prizes each ticket type awarded—no can do.

Granted, it might be buried somewhere in there, but it should be on the graphs or in the accounting sheets like everything else is.

Anyway, the state sold a total of 6,251,478,651.00 in tickets and paid out a total of 4,056,494,096.13 in prizes. The result is that the overall return of the lottery is 64.89%, which is actually better than some, in terms of overall return. It’s probably about average.

Given that the state participates in national drawings such as Powerball and Mega Millions, both of which have the absolute worst returns to player (other than a few random lottery games in other states) we’re going to guess that instant ticket returns are supporting this number—just like they would anywhere else. It’s probably something like 68-70% to something in the low 50%’s, so based on other states, we would conclude that Texas sells a good number of scratchers compared to drawing tickets.

Based on a population estimate of 29 million, we find that:

(6,251,478,651.00-4,056,494,096.13)/29,000,000 = $75.6891225817

Texas residents lose an average of $75.69 to the lottery every year.

Believe it or not, that number is actually surprisingly low given that there are few other gambling choices in the state. This is the sort of traditional lottery number that you would expect from a state littered with casinos and VLT parlors, (and, trust me, those states are one and all making more in gambling revenues/resident overall) but with nothing really available except Bingo…I expected the loss per resident to be way higher.

I guess not even the lottery is bigger in Texas.

Land Casinos In Texas

As we mentioned above, Texas is only home to two land casinos, both of which are Native American owned and operated.

Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel

Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel is located in Eagles Pass, Texas, and is owned by the Traditional Kickapoo Tribe of Texas.

This property has also had some run-ins with the state, mostly concerning their desire to introduce Class III (“Vegas-style”) slot machines to the property. The State of Texas was very much opposed to this because, reasons, we guess. Who the hell knows? Texas is ridiculous.

This casino is also home to a sizable hotel that has standard rooms and an array of different suites. Guests of the property will enjoy amenities such as complimentary wireless internet access, outdoor pool, fitness center, mini-fridge and coffee makers in-room. Even the highest price suites are relatively basic, but all of the rooms are very nicely appointed and clean.

This property succeeds in being the biggest casino (of two) in Texas, but honestly, it’s a pretty good size considering that there are 3,300 Class II electronic bingo machines ranging in denomination from pennies to ten-dollar bills. This casino is also home to the only casino poker room in the state. Dealing both Limit and No Limit Hold ‘Em, it’s open seven days a week.

Even with the machines, the property sees fit to conduct live Bingo Wednesdays-Sunday.

The property is home to more eateries than one might expect: Azul is a Mexican place that’s open Wednesday-Sunday with simple food, simple ingredients and great taste. The property is also home to an IHOP location, which is a nationally recognized chain. We mean International House of Pancakes, not Prayer, though it is Texas…so I guess you never know.

Red Sky Grill is the same thing as one of the casino’s lounges, casual American food at casual American prices. If you’re having a nightcap and get hungry, don’t worry, they also have a watered-down late-night menu for you.

Finally, The Marketplace is functionally a food court featuring: Wok Inn Asian Cafe, Freddy’s Steakburgers (Frozen Custard), Grande Pizza and Eagle Eats—which is mostly a grab and go type of place.

While not officially a restaurant, Riverbend Cafe has coffee selections, pastries and some other grab and go type stuff.

There are two other bars on the property not associated with eateries-The Center Bar and the High Limit Bar. Live entertainment can usually be had at the casino on Thursdays-Saturdays.

If you’re looking for a casino in Texas, you really can’t do better than this. Of course, Texas isn’t the best place to look for casinos. With that said, this might be a good stop for you if you’re a poker player, plenty of good restaurants to check out. If you’re a slots player, then you might not know the difference between a Class II game and a Class III one, anyway, although we could only guess at the return-to-player…especially in a place with zero competition. Video poker players would do well to avoid this location.

Naskila Gaming

Located in Livingston, Texas and owned and operated by the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, Naskilla Gaming primarily functions as an electronic-bingo destination, which is to say that the machines appear to be slot machines on the surface, but are actually Class II games that select results from a pre-seeded prize pool.

Most players wouldn’t really know the difference because the screen, “Plays,” a result that corresponds to the prize that was communicated from the central server to the machine.

Of course, the State of Texas is trying to shut down this casino, despite the fact that the Federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act makes their electronic bingo perfectly legal on the reservation.

Can you imagine this? Class II Electronic Bingo is something that can be taken for granted in virtually any state that has Indian reservations. Many of these machines (Oklahoma and South Dakota are examples) exist alongside Class III (random number generator, ‘Vegas-style’) gaming machines. Simply put: This should NOT be controversial and is pretty clearly established law.

Even if the Federal position on this was not clearly established, why the hell would the state even want to shut them down? What are they doing that even hurts anyone?

The property is home to roughly 800 of these Class II devices and does not have any table games. Were the State of Texas ever to legalize table games (commercially speaking), then they’d have to let the Native American casinos have them, but that’s not the case.

There’s a pretty good chance that this property would just be a (live) bingo hall if not for the machines, but of course, it would make MUCH less money that way. Also, it would have to compete with any nearby Texas Charitable Bingo, which would put it in a more difficult position.

The State of Texas, in my opinion, is taking a completely unreasonable position on this one. It would be one thing if this electronic bingo place was competing with Texas Commercial Casinos and its legality could be rightly questioned—but that’s not the case. Texas has no Commercial Casinos and, from what we can tell, has little to no interest in having any anytime soon.

Is that what freedom looks like? If you say so.

The property is home to two eateries. Cafe Itto Si consists mainly of very reasonably priced Tex-Mex food along with a few other things. Timbers Grille is good for all three of the day and dishes them out at very wallet-friendly prices.

Can we really recommend a special trip to a Class II Gaming establishment—no. This is basically just a local casino with electronic bingo machines that don’t even operate on independent random number generators. On the other hand, screw the State of Texas, go there and play some games if you happen to be nearby. If you win, you win…if you lose, then the Tribe gets to make a little bit of money.

Just ignore the video poker paytables, if it’s Class II, then what the paytables say is irrelevant because the normal probability rules do not apply.

Conclusion

Texas is not the place to go for gambling and we don’t expect that to change anytime soon. We’re actually surprised to see a state that no only doesn’t seem inclined to authorize new forms of gambling, but is actively opposed to some of the ones that they already have.

We will say that there are a few different horse racing tracks and (choke) dog tracks in the state, but we wouldn’t do this state the favor of listing them. Get real casinos. Legalize parlors. Leave the Native Americans alone because, if you’ve ever read a history book, you know full well that they’ve been through enough already.

We’re sure there are plenty of great things to do and see in Texas, but if you’re a gambler—you haven’t hit a Royal Flush, you’ve hit a state that royally sucks.

Texas Casinos and Gambling Questions And Answers

Here are the answers to some of the most common questions that we receive.

References

• Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Official Site
• Texas Attorney General on Gambling

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