Texas Lt. Gov. calls for study of crypto, prediction markets

Dan Patrick, Texas’ lieutenant governor and president of the Senate, has called for lawmakers to study prediction markets, crypto and blockchain as part of legislative priorities ahead of the state’s next session in January 2027.

In a Friday announcement, the lieutenant governor’s office issued 2026 interim charges directing Texas Senate committees to examine key policy areas ahead of the next legislative session. Patrick said that the charges were intended to “advance the priorities of Texas’ conservative majority,” including an analysis of prediction markets and digital assets.

According to the charges, Patrick asked lawmakers to focus on closing gambling loopholes by studying “the sudden inundation of prediction market gambling and the exploitation of federal law to circumvent Texas gambling prohibitions,” including those related to election wagering.

As part of a broader financial technology initiative, he also called for evaluating how Texas coordinates with federal crypto regulations and examining the role of crypto kiosks in the state.

Texas has some of the strictest laws in the country concerning sports betting and gambling, which is largely restricted to casinos on Native American reservations and the state’s lottery system. Many gaming authorities in other US states have filed lawsuits against prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket over sports and election wagers, but Texas was not among them as of Tuesday.  

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The Texas legislature meets every two years and is scheduled to return for a 140-day session in January 2027. In its 2025 legislative session, lawmakers proposed a Bitcoin reserve bill, which was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in June.

AI is also under scrutiny as Anthropic plans Texas expansion

Among Patrick’s charges included a study of the “impact of AI on the Texas workforce and its implications for economic competitiveness.”

The notice came as reports suggested that Google would support a multibillion-dollar data center in Texas leased to Anthropic. The project, expected to exceed $5 billion initially, comes as many mining companies in the US are pivoting to AI and high-performance computing amid increasing mining difficulty and falling crypto prices.

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