Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who also serves as President of the Texas Senate, has outlined a set of interim legislative priorities that include the study of prediction markets, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology. The charges were announced on a Friday and are intended to guide Senate committees in their preparations for the next legislative session. Patrick stated the priorities were designed to advance the goals of Texas’s conservative majority.
A central concern in the announcement is what Patrick describes as the exploitation of federal law to bypass Texas gambling restrictions. He specifically called for lawmakers to examine the rapid growth of prediction market platforms and their use of federal regulations to sidestep state prohibitions on election-related wagering. The initiative frames this as a matter of closing existing gambling loopholes.
On the financial technology front, Patrick directed lawmakers to evaluate how Texas coordinates with federal rules governing crypto and blockchain. The charges also call for a closer look at cryptocurrency kiosks operating within the state. Texas maintains some of the strictest gambling laws in the country, largely limiting such activity to casinos on Native American reservations and the state lottery system.
Several gaming regulators in other US states have pursued legal action against prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket over sports and election wagers. As of the time of the announcement, Texas had not joined those lawsuits. The state’s approach appears focused on legislative study rather than immediate litigation.
The Texas legislature convenes every two years and is scheduled to begin a 140-day session in January 2027. During its most recent 2025 session, lawmakers advanced a Bitcoin reserve bill that was subsequently signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in June, signaling the state’s growing engagement with digital asset policy.
Patrick’s interim charges also include an examination of artificial intelligence and its effects on the Texas workforce, with a focus on economic competitiveness. The announcement coincided with reports that Google plans to back a multibillion-dollar data center in Texas to be leased to AI company Anthropic. The project is expected to surpass $5 billion in initial investment.
The data center development reflects a broader trend in which companies previously focused on cryptocurrency mining are shifting toward AI and high-performance computing. This pivot comes amid rising mining difficulty and declining crypto prices across the industry. Texas, with its significant energy infrastructure, has become a focal point for both sectors.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
