Texas lieutenant governor and Senate president Dan Patrick has directed lawmakers to study prediction markets, crypto and blockchain as part of 2026 interim charges ahead of the Legislature’s next session in January 2027. In a Friday announcement, Patrick’s office issued the charges to guide Senate committees’ work, saying they were meant to “advance the priorities of Texas’ conservative majority,” and specifically calling for analysis of prediction markets and digital assets.
Patrick asked lawmakers to examine “the sudden inundation of prediction market gambling and the exploitation of federal law to circumvent Texas gambling prohibitions,” including concerns about election wagering. As part of a broader fintech review, the charges also call for evaluating how Texas coordinates with federal crypto regulation and assessing the role of crypto kiosks in the state.
Texas maintains strict gambling rules, limiting most wagering to Native American reservation casinos and the state lottery. While several U.S. gaming authorities have filed lawsuits against prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket over sports and election bets, Texas had not joined those suits as of the announcement.
The Texas Legislature meets biennially for 140-day sessions; it will reconvene in January 2027. In 2025, lawmakers proposed a Bitcoin reserve bill that Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in June.
Patrick’s interim charges also include a study of artificial intelligence’s impact on the Texas workforce and economic competitiveness. The notice coincided with reports that Google would support a multibillion-dollar data center in Texas leased to AI company Anthropic — an initial project expected to exceed $5 billion. The move comes as some U.S. bitcoin mining firms pivot toward AI and high-performance computing amid rising mining difficulty and lower crypto prices.
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