Bills to Legalize Poker & Casinos in Texas Introduced

It appears Texas state coffers are running so dry, that not one, but 3 separate bills have been introduced relating to poker and casino gambling as a means of generating revenues for Texas.

Legislation to regulate poker in Texas was filed in the Texas House last Thursday March 8. Bill HB 3186 defines poker as a game of skill and proposes a set of guidelines for thousands of Texans who already play poker to follow. The bill was filed by Representative Jose Menendez (D) of San Antonio.

HB 3186 would allow up to four live or electronic poker tables at establishments meeting stringent requirements and task the Lottery Commission with deciding the number of tables allowed at racetracks.

"This legislation could raise over a billion dollars over the next biennium for state coffers while bringing the game out of legal limbo and into the light," said Mike Lavigne, treasurer of the Texas Poker Political Action Committee (PAC), a grassroots organization created to encourage legal, safe and accessible poker in Texas.

The legislation also specifically allows for charitable poker, which would be overseen again by the Lottery Commission. HB 3186 would mean bigger and more successful regular charitable tournaments benefiting a variety of important Texas causes.

"Charitable poker means more Texans win," said Lavigne. "Texas charities are losing out on millions of dollars due to the antiquated laws governing the game."

Here are highlights of HB 3186:

Despite recent federal attempts to eliminate online poker and online gambling, the popularity of poker keeps growing all around the world. As gaming-related television programming continues to spread in popularity, so do the many new tournaments that attract tourists and visitors. States like Oklahoma, California and Connecticut have long been reaping the benefits of the poker boom.

Last fall, Texas gubernatorial candidates Bell, Friedman and Strayhorn all agreed that Texans are active gamblers but leave the state to do so, which leaves state tax coffers dry (click here to read prior article).

"We are sucking conservatively 2 billion dollars a year out of our Texas classrooms. They are going to Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico and now Oklahoma," independent Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said.

To stem the flow of Texas gambling dollars to other states, two high-profile senators, backed by major gambling interests, introduced a change to the state constitution (SJR 45) and a bill, separate from the poker bill, to make Texas casino gambling resorts legal (SB 1359) to the Texas house last week, the same week as the poker bill.

Senators John Carona, a Dallas Republican, and Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat say that a main selling point of the plan is a provision that would dedicate $1 billion per year to a fund to pay for eligible Texans to attend a community college or public university.

In addition to slowing the flow of gambling money leaving the state, they said "destination resort casinos" will attract tourism money for related activities, like high-end entertainment.

The proposed constitutional amendment, if approved by Texas voters, would allow for 12 casino gambling sites: seven in urban areas, two along the Gulf coast and three on Indian reservations. It also would legalize video slot machines at horse and dog race tracks.

The bill proposes that a gaming commission appointed by state leaders would decide which cities casinos could be located in and which developers receive permits to operate them.

Economist Ray Perryman said the Ellis-Carona proposal would provide $1 billion per year for a trust fund to pay for college tuition covering about 240,000 students once the program is fully running. He estimated that it would also create up to 400,000 new jobs and generate $3 billion to $4.5 billion in state and local revenue.

"Texans are already voting with their feet and going out of state," Ellis said. "It's time for Texas to reap the economic benefits and use that revenue to help Texas students go to college."

A third and entirely separate bill was introduced to allow video slots at Texas race tracks and on Indian reservations. Bill HB 1405 was introduced by Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, a Palmview Democrat.

Ellis and Carona said they would be working closely with Flores, but said they would oppose a gambling measure that allows only video slot machines at tracks without establishing full resort casinos.

So Texans have a variety of poker and gambling bills in play on the table at this time: the casino gambling bill and constitutional amendment promoted by Ellis and Carona are SB 1359 and SJR 45 respectively. Flores' video slots bill is HB 1405. And Menendez's poker bill is HB 3186.

Do we detect a crack in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) armor?

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