5 January 22 - 28, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents tired of waiting.” While he often encourages his neighbors not to give up on advocating for Kleberg, he has increasingly found that his urging falls on deaf ears. Will this latest push for preservation be just another City Hall promise? Not if he can help it. “Look at it out here,” Carranza said, driv- ing through the Kleberg backroads and pointing to the sweeping pasture that holds his cows. “It could be so beautiful.” ▼ GAMBLING WANNA BET? YOU CAN LEGALLY PUT MONEY DOWN ON CROCKETT VS. TALARICO IN TEXAS. BY KELLY DEARMORE W ant to have a little extra fun dur- ing this year’s Super Bowl? If the fun of watching the commercials has been spoiled for you by how all of them get released before the big game, you might be one of the millions who want to put a few bucks down on how long the singing of the National Anthem might last, or the result of the pre-game coin toss. That type of sports gambling is old news, though. Funky prop bets have been around for some time now. People want more! Peo- ple want something different! What are the odds of that? The odds are pretty good, we say. A quick Google search reveals that anyone, including Texans, can legally place a bet (of sorts) on the hottest matchup that Texans will be talking about for the next few months. We aren’t talking about the Super Bowl, but about the race between U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico. The two social media darlings are battling for the Democratic nomination to run for the U.S. Senate later this year. You don’t have to go incognito or utilize a VPN or something shady to put your money down on this contest in Texas. You just need to visit a prediction market platform. During the recent Golden Globe Awards broadcast, the disembodied announcer voices kept yammering on about how Poly- market users were betting on certain awards. The production gimmick, along with a few others, wasn’t popular with view- ers, who took to social media to complain. However, Polymarket’s presence on such a mainstream television production, with an audience of millions, says a lot about where society stands when it comes to gambling. Polymarket is a prediction market plat- form, just like other leaders in the space, such as Kalshi and Fanatics Markets. Like daily fantasy sports, prediction markets have been able to circumvent the legal issues that traditional online sports betting remains en- tangled in, particularly in the 22 states where sports gambling is still illegal. The key difference between putting money down on a prediction market app and illegal sports betting is that the user isn’t betting “against the house,” but taking advantage of the prediction market’s “peer- to-peer” trading element, where the plat- form acts as a broker who takes a transaction fee as opposed to generating revenue from user losses. It’s not surprising that prediction market platforms have decided to focus their mar- keting efforts on states like Texas. “Consumers by nature don’t want to break the law,” Fanatics Markets Vice Presi- dent of Industry Communications Kevin Hennessy said in an email to the Observer. “Therefore, if there are other options made available in a regulated market, such as the ability to trade futures with prediction mar- kets, we believe consumers will turn to this option as opposed to taking risks with illegal activity.” On a recent morning, both the Kalshi and Polymarket platforms listed Talarico as the betting favorite over Crockett, despite re- cent polling suggesting the opposite. Both markets show the Round Rock Democrat at a 64% “yes” to win the nomination. On the other hand, Crockett is sporting a 35% “yes” on Kalshi and only 34% on Polymarket. The Kalshi payout for a Talrico win was higher than what Polymarket was paying out at that time, at least. A user who trades $100 for a Talarico win now stands to re- ceive a $157 payout, where spending the same amount on Polymarket will yield only a $149.44 windfall. Fanatics Markets doesn’t offer the chance to put money down on this specific primary race, but does offer users a chance to trade on whether the Republican or Democratic candidate will win the Senate election in November. So far, Texas officials have been quiet on the topic of prediction markets, something they most definitely were not a decade ago when the state tried to outlaw daily fantasy sports platforms. We reached out to the Texas Attorney General’s Office to ask a few questions about the state’s stance on predic- tion markets but did not receive a response. So far, more than a dozen states, includ- ing California and New York, have issued cease-and-desist orders, filed lawsuits, or taken some sort of action against prediction market sites. Polymarket made dubious news this month when a user turned a $32,000 trade into $400,000 following the surprise capture of Venezuelan leader Nico- las Maduro, something observers have said “reeked of insider trading,” according to CBS News. Given how gambling-averse the Texas government has long been, even as powerful casino and resort owners like Dallas Maver- icks owner Miriam Adelson have pumped millions of dollars into Republican cam- paign coffers, it is a bit surprising that Pax- ton and Gov. Greg Abbott have been relatively quiet on the matter thus far. Hennessy of Fanatics Markets, under- standably, thinks platforms like his can help push the conversation around gambling into a bolder direction than it has been headed in the past. “The expansion of prediction markets in Texas will certainly help to advance the policy conversations surrounding sports wagering in the state,” he said. “State law- makers understand that there is a tremen- dous amount of uncaptured state tax revenue from sports wagering. By simply allowing a voter referendum authorizing sports wagering to be placed before the state citizenry, lawmakers have the ability to potentially capture new revenue, while also providing citizens with a choice.”
