Posted on: December 16, 2022, 01:05h.
Last updated on: December 16, 2022, 01:05h.
Billionaire Mark Cuban is interested in constructing a multibillion-dollar integrated casino resort with an NBA arena for his Dallas Mavericks. If the plan is allowed to come to fruition, which is currently a longshot endeavor because of Texas’ ban on commercial casino gambling, the “Shark Tank” star says he would partner with Las Vegas Sands.
Sands, the Las Vegas-based casino giant that operates integrated resorts in China’s Macau and Singapore, sold off its domestic interests in recent years. In 2018, Sands unloaded its Pennsylvania casino for $1.3 billion. And the company founded by the late Sheldon Adelson sold off its Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip for $6.25 billion just two months after the gaming tycoon’s January 2021 death.
Flush with cash, Sands has been targeting Texas for its next domestic development. Cuban, one of the Lone Star State’s richest residents with a net worth of approximately $4.6 billion, says he’s ready to partner with the gaming giant to bring a casino to Texas.
My goal, and we’d partner with Las Vegas Sands, is when we build a new arena it’ll be in the middle of a resort and casino,” Cuban told The Dallas Morning News this week. “That’s the mission.”
The more immediate mission is convincing state lawmakers to allow commercial casino gambling with slot machines, table games, and sports betting.
Texas Casino Odds Long
The Texas Legislature has seen numerous pieces of legislation introduced in recent sessions seeking to establish a regulatory framework to welcome casinos. But to date, gambling hasn’t received a supportive vote in either chamber of the bicameral body.
Texas state Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston) plans to resume the discussion in 2023. Alvarado has confirmed that she will introduce legislation next year to legalize casino gaming and sports betting.
Alvarado said her measure will closely mimic her 2021 casino bill, which sought to allow Texas’ biggest cities to consider a casino development. Dallas is the third most populated city in Texas with about 1.3 million residents.
Though Texas’ conservative legislature isn’t expected to rush to allow a casino, Rice University political scientist Mark Jones believes the tide is at least slowly changing in gaming’s favor.
I would say the conditions for the passage of casino gambling are better today than at any other time,” Jones said. “If they don’t pass casino gambling, I think sports betting seems to be a decent fallback, even likely.”
Cuban wants full gambling with slots and tables.
“Destination resort casinos, that’s billions of dollars to the state,” Cuban declared of the potential economic benefits of designating Texas as a casino market.
Cuban: Texas Needs Destinations
Cuban has repeatedly pledged his commitment to Dallas proper, the city where he made the bulk of his fortune after moving there in 1982. The billionaire has dismissed attractive offers from Frisco and other suburbs to build his team’s new practice facility outside the city.
Cuban wants to keep the entire Mavs organization in Dallas. And he thinks building the team’s next arena inside a casino resort would create an attraction that would lure travelers from across the country for a visit.
“For anyone who lives outside of Texas, what is the one place that they plan a vacation to visit in Texas? There is none. There’s no destination resort in Texas where, if you’re living in Pittsburgh or Indiana or Chicago, you say, ‘Hey, honey, we’re saving money to take the family to Texas,’” Cuban said.
