About PlayTexas
PlayTexas is your resource for the latest Texas gambling information. We keep up with the various legislative pushes for casino gambling, sports betting, poker, and other forms of wagering. We also provide comprehensive information about the types of legal gambling currently available in the state, including the Texas Lottery and the state’s horse tracks.
This page tells you who we are, how we operate and what to do if you want to get in touch.
Contact us
Catena Media
11700 W. Charleston Blvd. No. 170-520
Las Vegas, NV 89135
646-543-0245
Who is PlayTexas?
Every person who writes for PlayTexas is either a full-time employee of Catena Media or a carefully-vetted freelance writer. We do not accept submissions from guest writers or publish any unsolicited external content.
Meet the team!
Managing Editor: Tyler Andrews
Tyler is the Managing Editor for play-texas.com, covering sports, sports law, and gambling for the Lone Star State. He has also covered similar topics for PlayCA, PlayFlorida, PlayOhio, and PlayMA. Tyler’s current focus is Texas’s pathway to gaming legalization.
Contributor: Mark Fadden
Mark Fadden has been a freelance writer for almost 20 years. His subject matter has included jobs and careers, travel and spirits (the kind you drink). While much of his gambling expertise comes from $10 blackjack tables in Vegas, he’s excited about reporting on the state of gambling in Texas.
Contributor: Rashid Mohamed
Rashid Mohamed is an international journalist with a special interest in sports writing. He is a Poli-Sci graduate of Ohio University and holds an A.A.S in Journalism. He has worked in a number of countries and has extensive experience in the United Nations as well as other regional, national, and international organizations. Rashid lives and writes out of Denver, Colorado.
Contributor: Hill Kerby
Hill Kerby is a proponent of safe, legal betting, and is grateful to be able to contribute to growing the industry. He has a background in poker, sports, and psychology, all of which he incorporates into his writing.
Contributor: TJ McBride
T.J. McBride is a writer and reporter based in Denver, Colorado who covers the Denver Nuggets as a beat writer. He contributes regularly to PlayTexas on issues surrounding the illegal gaming market. His byline can be found across many websites such as ESPN, FiveThirtyEight, Bleacher Report, and others.
Contributor: J.R. Duren
J.R. Duren has covered the gambling beats for more than a dozen states for Catena Media since 2015. His past reporting experience includes two years at the Villages Daily Sun, and he is a first-place winner at the Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Contest.
Content Manager: Jason Schaumburg
Jason Schaumburg is a content manager for Catena Media with responsibilities for PlayIndiana, PlayTexas, PlayGeorgia and NC Sharp. He has more than 20 years of journalism experience and spent nearly four years as communications director at the Illinois Lottery.
What is PlayTexas?
PlayTexas is an affiliate news organization. We are part of a network of sites owned by Catena Media, an international publicly-traded firm that covers gambling on four continents. Catena also owns other state-specific sites, including for Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Jersey, and Ohio (among others).
Catena Media and PlayTexas are only interested in legal gambling options. While Texans have many gambling choices available to them right now, some of them exist in a legal limbo or are otherwise flatly illegal. Therefore you won’t find any information about gambling options of uncertain legality here. We also have no interest in covering offshore gambling sites that do not comply with US or state law.
We are an affiliate site along with being a news organization. That means you may see advertising from prominent gambling companies on our pages from time to time. These companies are our valued partners, but none of them maintain any kind of editorial control over the direction of our reporting or our content. We do not accept any paid advertisements and do not allow guest posting.
Our Mission Statement
PlayTexas covers the gambling industry and scene in Texas in an accurate and unbiased manner. Our reporting is strictly fact-based. We rarely offer our opinions or interpretations of the events as they happen, as those kinds of judgments are best left to readers.
We also seek to answer questions that Texans might have about legal gambling options and efforts to expand them. Across the country, gambling has been growing in visibility over the past few years. As a result, there is plenty of online supposition and guesswork regarding what is legal and what is not. If a visit to PlayTexas clears up any confusion you might be experiencing about gambling in the Lone Star State, we’ve done our job.
Finally, we seek to present you with the best bonus offers at legal online gambling sites. Many of our offers are exclusive to the Catena Media network.
Our Writing Process
When it comes to our writing process, our first step is to seek out primary sources for information about what is happening with various aspects of gambling in Texas. We receive notices, information, and comments from lawmakers, public officials, and relevant employees at the various gambling venues around the state. We also corroborate our information with government reports and court documents.
Anything we write is then subject to editing and review. We verify each fact, link, and statement for accuracy as well as grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Finally, the managing editor of PlayTexas looks through each story to provide further fact-checking and advice about any other necessary revisions.
Through that much review, it is quite rare for us to include any mistakes in our reporting. However, it does happen from time to time, and we have no interest in providing inaccurate information. Therefore, the third step in our process belongs to you. If you see something that doesn’t look correct, we absolutely want to hear from you about it. Our accuracy is paramount, and our egos are strong enough to handle correcting a mistake every now and again.
Do you want to write for PlayTexas?
Do you like to write? Do you live in or near Texas? If so, we want to hear from you!
PlayTexas is always looking to hire top writers who know a thing or two about gambling in the state. If you have been following the slow-moving (or non-moving) legislative process to expand legal gambling in the state or have any other special interest or insight regarding the Texas gambling industry, you might be right for the job.
If you want to explore a career with us, drop us a line. Make sure to include your experience and if possible links to your content or portfolio. Alternatively, you can also take a look at the Catena Media careers page and see if any open job speaks to you and your expertise.
Get in touch
If you are a member of the media, welcome. We’d be happy to help you in whatever way we can by sharing additional information or background, or by providing expert interviews or feedback to help you with your stories. For media inquiries, contact Jason Schaumburg, Content Manager at Catena.
If you’re a reader and have something on your mind, let us know. We want to hear from you, no matter what it is. If you have heard about a possible Texas gambling story you think we should check out, tell us what it is. If you have a complaint, we’ll do our best to fix it. Of course, if you just want to tell us how much you’re enjoying your time on PlayTexas, we’ll accept that, too.