While the Texas legislature has not yet passed a bill that would make sports betting legal in the state, the Supreme Court decision in May that gave each state the right to do so already has collegiate and professional sports leagues reacting to the possible legality in many ways.

Coaches and commissioners in the Big 12, Southeastern and Atlantic Coast Conferences discussed the idea of standardized injury reports that would help bettors prognosticate each game, although it is unclear whether each conference favors sports betting. Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey said while opening his league’s media days on July 16 that the SEC could require schools to issue weekly reports listing players who are either injured or ineligible, such as the NFL already does.

“I do not believe this has to happen before the 2018 season, either on the part of this conference or the national level,” Sankey said in an Associated Press article. “I expect, however, the change in sports gambling could be and will be likely the impetus for the creation of such reports in the future.”

In the Big 12, coaches like TCU’s Gary Patterson and Kansas State’s Bill Snyder are not all in love with standard injury reports, according to a report from Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford said he expects a national rule requiring college programs to list unavailable players to come in 2019 in an effort to keep certain people from “trying to get information in an underhanded kind of way,” according to an AP story.

Whether the SEC, which includes Texas A&M, prioritizes legalized gambling will result from “collaboration” with the American Football Coaches Association, the NCAA, information gathered from professional sports leagues “and with proper guidance from legal resources,” Sankey added, according to The AP. “If this is to happen, we have one opportunity to get it right.”

So far, according to ESPN, only Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have legalized sports betting, with the latter two states approving it last month. Texas has not introduced a bill in favor of sports betting this year, and a bill in Louisiana did not make it out of its House of Representatives.

Local investor
Greg “XBigPappa” Richard, 58, who splits time between Port Arthur and Houston’s South Shore Harbor, has bet on sports for 25 years and runs an investment group where bettors pay to gain information on upcoming games he and the group will pick winners on.

“People were doing online gambling as soon as the Internet broke in the mid-‘90s, either there or with a local bookie,” said Richard, who will host the “XBig Pappa Sports Talk Show” each Thursday starting Aug. 9 on KSAP-LPFM 96.9 (“The Breeze”). “It was like a slap on the wrist. It was never even enforced that much. You knew people were doing it. Officially, Las Vegas was the only place in the country where you could do it up until this past May, when they opened the doors for everyone.”

Not all states — Texas included — have gone through those doors yet.

Richard is starting his show to talk about college, NFL and high school football, giving listeners an opportunity to call in with their thoughts during the show. For bettors, Richard is also offering a “comp,” or complimentary pick on a college or NFL game each week.

“Everyone wants an edge,” he said, referring to bettors and non-betting prognosticators. “Information is the key to it.

“I want to keep people guessing. You got a lot of haters seeing if you’re going to lose out on a game. They’re going to come and listen to see if you stumble.”

Richard, a former University of Tennessee walk-on receiver who is an equity trader and does contract engineering work, uses a “runner,” or someone in Las Vegas who will send money to the sports books to enter a bet to stay legal.

“I’ve got apps for several casinos in Las Vegas, but they only work when you’re in the state of Nevada,” Richard said.

Richard used to bet with offshore sports books, but said he hasn’t in five or six years.

“They’re going to go out of business as soon as the states get caught up and get their sports books going,” he said.

Illegal fantasy
Texas State Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, was one of five co-authors for a bill primarily authored by Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, to legalize fantasy sports. While a committee approved it 6-0 in April 2017, the bill failed to move further in the house.

“I think fantasy sports are different from gambling,” Phelan said. “I can’t say I support full-fledged casinos in Texas. Truthfully, if they do [legalize gambling in Texas], I see them in large metropolitan areas.”

For example, Phelan believes state house members from Houston would want to have casinos in their city to keep local dollars that are otherwise put into restaurants and hotels in places such as Port Arthur, Beaumont and Orange when gamblers travel to Lake Charles.

“I do think we’re a long way from full-fledged casinos, but I think sports books are an easy fix,” said Phelan, who argued fantasy sports has an element of skill whereas sports bettors rely on who is (in)eligible to play a game, where a game is played, in what setting and on what kind of surface.

Phelan added he has no issues with sports betting, but he believes the Supreme Court’s decision to allow states to legalize such won’t change minds to states that are already opposed to it.

“In light of the Supreme Court deciding sports betting being a state issue, not a federal issue, I think we should take a fresh look at it,” he said.

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Disclosure: I.C. Murrell will co-host the “XBig Pappa Sports Talk Show” with Richard from noon-1 p.m. Thursdays beginning Aug. 9 on KSAP-LPFM 96.9.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews