DBJ took a close look at campaign finance reports from the May runoff elections to track the influence of Adelson and his family in their push to legalize casino gambling in Texas.
Dallas — Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Featured in the Dallas Business Journal.
Billionaire Miriam Adelson made a big bet ahead of the May 28 Texas runoff elections, but like the people who put their money into her casinos, the results were mixed.
Adelson, who is part of the new majority shareholder group for the Dallas Mavericks and the patriarch of the family that controls Las Vegas Sands Corp., wrote a $9 million check on May 6 to fund a newly launched political action committee, Texas Defense PAC, according to a May 20 campaign finance report. The PAC then spent more than $3.3 million on advertising, door-to-door canvassing and polling for the runoff elections for five Republican candidates, including incumbent House Speaker Dade Phelan, who faces a challenge from the far right, according to the filing.
Phelan won a close race while three other candidates backed by Texas Defense PAC lost, including incumbent North Texas Reps. Frederick Fraser and Justin Holland. Fort Worth businessman John McQueen, who received about $1.3 million from Texas Defense PAC, narrowly defeated Cheryl Bean in the 97th House District nomination, which represents Tarrant County in the southwest.
All of these expenditures came after Adelson and his family purchased a majority stake in the Mavericks from longtime owner Mark Cuban on Dec. 27. The Dallas Business Journal dug into campaign finance reports from the May runoff elections to track Adelson and his family’s influence in pushing to legalize casino gambling in Texas.
Sands, Adelson and Cuban, who owns a 27% stake in the NBA franchise and still oversees basketball operations, have floated the idea of building a resort-casino anchored by a new arena in the Dallas area.
Another group with ties to the casino empire, Texas Sands PAC, donated $648,000 between Feb. 25 and May 18. Las Vegas Sands launched its PAC in January 2022 with $2.3 million in seed funding from Adelson.
A Las Vegas Sands spokesman declined to comment.
Phelan received more than $660,000 from Adelson and related PACs during the most recent fundraising period. That’s on top of the $200,000 the Texas Sands PAC donated before the March primary. Patrick Dumont, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands, also personally donated $50,000 to the campaign in April. In addition to his role at Las Vegas Sands, Dumont replaced Cuban as president of the Mavericks.
As speaker, Phelan has been open to exploring ways to bring casinos to Texas, a position he faced opposition from far-right Republicans and Attorney General Ken Paxton for supporting the House’s impeachment of Attorney General Paxton last year.
While the spending on Mr. Phelan led to victory, other races have not fared better for Mr. Adelson and Las Vegas Sands.
Frazier received $546,000 in his loss to Keletha Richardson to continue representing a district that includes McKinney, Anna, Celina, Frisco, Melissa, Prosper and Frisco in Collin County. Justin Holland, who represents parts of Rockwall and Collin counties, received more than $610,000 in his loss to Katrina Pearson.
John Kuempel of Seguin lost his race to retain his House District 44 seat after receiving more than $514,000 in donations from Texas Defense PAC and Texas Sons PAC.
One surprising revelation from recent campaign finance filings was that the Texas Sands PAC in March donated $200,000 to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate president and a staunch opponent of gambling.
Patrick told KTVT-TV in December that he has met Miriam Adelson “many times” and thinks she’s “a wonderful woman,” but he said her majority stake in the Mavs won’t affect the legislative process.
“I, [legalizing gambling]”Like any bill we pass, it has to have the support of the legislators,” Patrick said. “There can’t be a shortcut where the governor or the lieutenant governor or the speaker just says to vote yes and that’s it.”
A Sands subsidiary acquired 259 acres in Irving last summer, leading some to speculate that the site could be the site of a future casino development, but the company has said it has no immediate plans to do so.
