NBA Dallas Mavericks co-owner seeks to bring gaming to Texas

To his right: former NBA stars Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, as well as three-time Super Bowl champion Emmitt Smith. Nearby, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who played high school and college football at Texas, was also cheering.

Dumont, chairman of gaming giant Las Vegas Sands Corp. — and son-in-law of billionaire Miriam Adelson — purchased a majority stake in the Mavs with his family late last year from Mark Cuban. The deal valued the franchise at $3.5 billion. Since then, he has been a regular at the games and is warmly acclimatizing to his new second home.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of cities in America where you can show up and everyone is just warm and hugging,” Dumont said at the team’s practice facility before Game 4 against the Boston Celtics, who dominated the series and pushed Dallas to win the title. on the verge of elimination. The Mavs ended up winning, 122-84, even though no NBA team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit in the playoffs. “There’s a lot of pride in being a Texan, and it’s just a lot of fun to be a part of.”

The Mavs’ purchase punctuated the family’s efforts to deepen its ties to the state, including Sands’ desire to build hotel-casino complexes that will attract dollars and jobs to Texas. But in a state that has resisted pro-gaming efforts for years, Dumont said he and his family are ready to play the long game.

“We really want to be in the state of Texas,” the 49-year-old said, referring to LVS and casino gaming. “We believe this is a great investment opportunity and we are in it for the long term. We’re going to continue to talk about the virtues of what this means for the state of Texas and how it can benefit the communities in which these resorts will be located.

Meanwhile, the basketball business is booming and Dallas is in the midst of a professional sports renaissance. The Texas Rangers won the World Series of Baseball last year. The Dallas Stars have qualified for the NHL Western Conference Finals. And the Mavs have exceeded the expectations of many basketball experts. The city was on the shortlist to host the World Cup final in 2026 and will host the highest number of matches.

The NBA is close to signing new long-term broadcast deals that would net the league about $76 billion over 11 years, or three times its current deal. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said before the Finals that the league would look toward expansion, possibly overseas, after completing new television rights negotiations. Both Las Vegas and Seattle are considered favorites for new NBA franchises. Mexico City is also a competitor. The WNBA saw a surge in interest after Caitlin Clark joined the league.

“The NBA is a multi-faceted business,” Dumont said, sitting in the team’s “Real MVP conference room,” where searches for the upcoming NBA draft had to be kept under wraps. “It’s a media company, a hospitality company and a culinary company. It’s all about experience. These are the kinds of things that we do well and that we think we can bring to the city of Dallas.

All of this makes owning a team in one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States more compelling. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is building a new campus that will house about 5,000 employees in Dallas. BlackRock Inc. and Citadel Securities are among the investors backing a new Texas stock exchange. The Dallas-Fort Worth area now has more financial professionals than Chicago or Los Angeles, second only to New York.

“The state is growing for a reason,” he said. “There are good schools. There are good communities. People work hard. Many companies are trying to locate here because they realize that not all states are run this way. »

Behind the scenes, the Adelson family is already laying the groundwork to face a massive political challenge to legalize gambling in Texas. The family recruited an army of lobbyists and increased its political spending. Since 2022, Adelson has invested $16.5 million in Texas campaigns and political action committees, according to Texas Ethics Commission records.

This level of spending shouldn’t be in jeopardy given Adelson’s deep pockets. With a net worth of $33.1 billion, the 78-year-old widow of Sands founder Sheldon Adelson is one of the 50 richest people on the planet, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

This year, the Texas Legislature rejected bills that would have legalized online and casino gambling. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who controls the legislation in the state Senate, said he would not proceed with a vote without Republican support.

There are signs that political trends are changing. About 75% of Texans support legislation to bring casino-style resorts to Texas, according to a January 2023 poll by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs. And a Republican-backed bill proposing a constitutional amendment allowing casino gaming at resorts passed a House committee last year — a first for Texas.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who received $1 million in campaign contributions from Adelson in 2022, has also signaled his openness on casinos.

“The question is how do we do this in a way that works for Texas,” Dumont said. “How do you manage sports betting? How do you manage the game? How do you ensure you benefit from tourist benefits? That’s really the point of the discussion.

For now, Dumont and his family have support from other Texas tycoons.

Billionaire Tilman Fertitta, owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets and Golden Nugget casinos, has spent years advocating for Texas to join dozens of other states in allowing Las Vegas-style hotel-casino resorts, arguing that They would spur job growth and bring in more tourist dollars. to restaurants, stores and hotels.

“Let’s do something to attract tourism, business travelers and conventions to Texas – and it has to be billion-dollar properties that do that,” he said in a February interview . “We need to do it right and build casinos, and not have a bunch of slot machines in every little grocery store.”

Cuban, who still owns a minority stake in the Mavs and advises on the team, discussed the potential for real estate developments anchored by a casino and arena.

“When you think of all the places you want to save money for a vacation, Texas is not one of them,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News at the time of the sale to the Adelson clan. “There is no real destination you are saving for. This is a problem and I think complex games would have a huge impact.

There is still a lot of opposition. Rob Kohler, a lobbyist for the Christian Life Commission, the public policy arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, has been fighting gambling in the state for more than two decades.

“There’s been a lot of noise about the Adelsons’ spending,” he said in an interview. “But it’s not the first wealthy people who are trying to expand gambling. If this is the amount of money being spent, Texas would have been experiencing gambling expansion for a long time.”

For now, Dumont says he’s focused on the team winning.

“I have a responsibility to ensure the success of the team,” he said. “I can’t give you a road map of what that will mean exactly, but my goal is to be there and help the Mavericks achieve championship success.”