Voters Back Gambling by Huge Margins
and Oppose THC Ban in New Texas Poll

Capitol Inside
March 10, 2025

Texas voters expressed overwhelming support for casino gambling and sports betting in a poll that was released on Monday with substantial opposition to a ban on THC that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wants state lawmakers to approve in regular session this year.

The University of Texas at Tyler survey of 1,252 registered voters in the final week of February found that 53 percent disapprove of President Donald Trump's performance during the early stages of his second term. Only 43 percent of the Texans in the UT Tyler poll gave Trump a positive rating for the job he's done since returning to the White House in January. Trump carried the Lone Star State in November with 56 percent of the vote.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz was underwater in the new survey with an approval mark of 44 percent compared to 47 percent who disapproved. U.S. Senator John Cornyn broke even with 32 percent impressed with his performance while 32 percent were not. But 28 percent of the voters in the UT Tyler poll said they didn't know enough about Cornyn to have an opinion despite the fact that he's been a U.S. senator here for the past 22 years.

The survey found that the voters here were on the same page as GOP leaders at the state level on education savings accounts, border security and the handling of the economy here. But the poll gave the impression that the Republicans in Austin are out of touch on other hot-button topics like cannabis and wagering.

Sixty-seven percent of the Texas voters in the poll voiced support for casino gambling compared to 31 percent who are opposed. The poll found 61 percent of the Republicans in the sample favor casinos as opposed to 37 percent who agreed with Patrick and the Texas Senate's GOP members on the issue.

Sixty-two percent registered their support for a law that would legalize betting on sports events compared to 36 percent who oppose such a measure. The poll found that 50 percent of the GOP voters here favor a sports betting law versus 36 percent who are opposed. But 67 percent agreed that an expansion of gambling would give the Texas economy a boost.

The UT Tyler survey found that a mere 30 percent support Patrick's proposed prohibition on THC products that are made from hemp and sold at dispensaries that have proliferated across Texas in recent years as a result of legislation that Patrick supported several years ago. Fifty-four percent of the Texans in the poll opposed the THC ban that the lieutenant governor is touting in Senate Bill 3.

The Senate's THC measure may have the same basic odds that Patrick encountered in a failed push for a bathroom bill that targeted transgender people in his second regular session as the Senate president in 2017.

The UT Tyler survey found that 56 percent of Texas voters said abortion should be legal in some if not all cases. Forty-four percent said abortion should be against the law in most if not every case.

The voters in the East Texas university's sample were harder to read on the subject of religion in public education. A whopping 81 percent said they favored the separation of church and state compared to 16 percent who did not.

Forty-three percent opposed a Ten Commandments mandate for public schools as opposed to 4o percent who backed such a proposal. But 56 percent supported a measure that would allow time for students to pray while they're at school.

more to come ...