diff --git a/arcade/gui/nine_patch.py b/arcade/gui/nine_patch.py
index d152ff3354..881b783805 100644
--- a/arcade/gui/nine_patch.py
+++ b/arcade/gui/nine_patch.py
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ def initialize(self) -> None:
         Manually initialize the NinePatchTexture if it was lazy loaded.
         This has no effect if the NinePatchTexture was already initialized.
         """
-        if self._initialized:
+        if not self._initialized:
             self._init_deferred()
 
     @property