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Texas Gambling Debates Heat Up

Posted on February 19th, 2011

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Texas remains one of the very few states in the US that does not allow gambling to be practiced within its territory. However, a huge budget deficit for the present fiscal year has had state legislators scrambling to plug holes in the state budget. One of the possible solutions proposed by legislators is to allow gambling in the state, thereby balancing out some of the deficits with gambling revenues. Legislators have warmed up to this idea because gambling has weathered the worst of the recession and has continued to stand firm as a good source of revenue for any state. Other lawmakers support the idea because there are not much better alternatives. With the massive $15 billion deficit in the state budget, cuts in funding have been rampant. Legislators fear that residents would not take too kindly to any proposal to increase tax rates or further cut funding for state services. Allowing and regulating a gambling industry in the state would lift some of the burden that would otherwise have been applied to state constituents.

Several proposals to allow gambling in the state have already been denied the previous years. But this year, with a very considerable deficit in the state budget, lawmakers are double taking their stances on the issue. “It’s a situation where a lawmaker could hold his nose and say, ‘public education is too important for me to not take advantage of this financial opportunity,’” said Chuck McDonald, a legislative consultant in Austin. McDonald has previously worked for several gambling measures in the past. His experience in the area covers from anti-gambling to pro-gambling efforts. Senator Rodney Ellis is behind the plans of proposing casino gambling in the state. The measure has the support of the Democrats, who are most often open to the idea of gambling.

No further details were to be had from the bill proposed by Senator Ellis, but he has hinted that the measure will most definitely be put up for a referendum. “The people deserve the right to choose whether they want draconian cuts to children’s education, health care for the elderly, and aid to veterans, or they want to move forward with an option to bring back the jobs and money to Texas we are giving away to other states,”, Ellis wrote in an e-mail. The Senator has expressed his concerns that Texas is losing a lot of potential revenue through residents going out of state in order to gamble. Neighboring Louisiana or Oklahoma has been siphoning money away from Texas with the gambling venues these states host.

With all these buzz generated by talks of legalizing casino gambling, lawmakers believe that the whole process will take a lot of time. Supporters of the gambling effort see a major hurdle in obtaining a two-thirds vote from both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The recent elections have strengthened the republicans’ control over both chambers, which necessarily means that any gambling proposal will meet a very strong opposition in both legislative houses. Casino operators believe that if casino gambling will indeed be allowed, it will not happen soon. “Will it happen? Probably not. Is there a chance? Yes,” said Tilman Fertitta, head of Houston-based Landry’s Inc. Fertitta added that the way things are going, the gambling effort still lacks support. However, he believes that the measure will be able to generate enough momentum and support in the years to come. “People saying no today might say yes tomorrow when the cuts hit their own backyard,” he added.

Opponents of the measure are also readying their camps. One of the state’s more vocal groups against gambling is the Christian Life Commission for Texas. Suzii Paynter, director for the group, has prepared several arguments that would show that casino gambling may very well not be the best option the state could take. She emphasized the fact the casinos would only be generating 2% for the state from the total amount spent on slot machines. Paynter adds that if the state would raise taxes on beer and wine, it would be able to generate almost a billion tax revenues. The figures presented by anti gambling factions is a direct contradiction to gambling supporters’ estimates of casino gambling generating at least a billion each year.