Leaders in the horse racing industry are heading up the charge to bring casino-style gambling to Texas and many Lone Star State residents are behind them. The horse racing business continues to decline in Texas, and many Lone Star State residents claim that legalizing casino-style gambling would help revitalize the once-booming industry.

Select Casino offer on sign-up and deposit. 4 deposits of £10, £20, £50, £100 matched with a bonus cash offer of same value (14 day expiry). 35x real money cash wagering (within Should Gambling Be Legalized In Texas 30 days) on eligible games before bonus cash is credited. Previous efforts to legalize casino gambling in Texas have not taken off, though the appetite could be different this session, when lawmakers are faced with a $4.6 billion budget shortfall.

Racing brought $5.5 billion to the Texas economy per year at the industry’s peak. But now the horse industry has largely moved from Texas to neighboring states offering higher purses and large, casino-stylegambling. According to the Texas Racing Commission, horse racing attendance in the state dropped 12 percent and wagers dropped 23 percent in 2011. Meanwhile, the horse racing industry in Oklahoma has expanded significantly in recent years, bringing the state $3.6 billion in revenue during 2012 alone.

Many argue Texans' gambling money should go into Texas as opposed to casinos in other states, especially as the economy takes a big hit. It's a billion dollar industry, but legalized casino gambling has yet to make it's way to Texas. 'All gambling is illegal in the state of Texas, unless there is a statute that specifically.

CEO of Sam Houston Race Park, Andrea Young, told the Sugar Land Sun, “How can we compete with surrounding states where the horses can compete for two to three times the amount of money in Louisiana or Oklahoma? Absent any new revenue, the ways we were going to do that was cutting our supply, allowing us to have more revenue to spread over shorter times.”

Young and a growing group of Texans plan to push for the legalization of casino-style gambling in Texas.

Let Texans Decide, a group “focused on urging the state legislature to provide our citizens with the opportunity to vote on legalizing gaming,” will be key in that effort. A spokesperson from the group told Breitbart Texas, “Due to legislative inaction, over $4 billion will be spent by Texans this year in neighboring states before the next legislative session begins.”

Indeed, Texans spend billions gambling in neighboring states per year. Both Louisiana and Oklahoma house numerous, expansive Vegas-style casino resorts that attract large crowds from around the U.S.

Let Texans Decide argues that legalizing casino-style gambling in Texas would bring $8.5 billion in economic growth not just to local communities, but to the entire state. Additionally, 75,000 jobs would be added in the Lone Star State, the group claims.

Republican State Rep. Allen Fletcher said Texans should get a chance to vote on the issue. He told the Sugar Land Sun, “We’ve never had the opportunity, as legislatures in the state of Texas, to cast a vote allowing the people of Texas to vote. I’ve heard many times that people have said they want this in our area, and I’ve always said it’s your decision. If I get the opportunity to put it on the ballot, I will.”

Earl Grinols, an expert on the impacts of gambling legislation and a professor at Baylor University, claims that research measuring gambling’s cost and benefits reveals thatsociety is better off without gambling.

He said that legislators often claim the state will make money by taxing gambling. But Grinols found that for every one dollar of benefits from gambling, society loses three dollars on costs such as law enforcement and social services.

“People have committed crime up to and including murder and committed suicide as a result of gambling,” Grinols said. “Casinos sometimes levy lawsuits against people to collect gambling debts. In certain cases, people are losing their homes overgambling.” In his view, crime, debts, suicide, and loss of housing cost the state more than it makes fromgambling.

Tony McDonald, General Counsel for the political advocacy group Empower Texans, agreed that there are significant negative societal impacts that come with the legalization of casino-style gambling. He told Breitbart Texas, “The gambling industry sells false hope for people who don’t understand probabilities. The industry is designed to dazzle people and trick them out of their money. They give the free drinks for a reason–they want you to stick around. The longer you stay, the more likely you are to lose your money.”

It is often the poorest and most vulnerable in society who are gamed by such false hope, McDonald said.

McDonald noted that a lot of conservatives claim to be pro-gambling because they see it as a free market issue. Texans shouldn’t be fooled, he argued–the legalization of gambling will inevitably invite the expansion of regulatory schemes. “The problem is, when we talk about gambling, we’re not talking about getting together in a room and having a poker game,” he said. “We’re not talking about a free activity in the market.Gambling is one of the most regulated industries in the U.S. By legalizing gambling, you’re creating another stake holder in government.”

He joked, “Battleground Texas would love nothing more than a cash cow of casinos to fund liberal Democrats.”

Texas is currently only one of ten states that do not allow casino-style gambling. The state’s deeply-rooted Baptist roots likely made the population more resistant to gambling than other states, McDonald said.

Still, gambling has recently taken the U.S. by storm. 20 years ago, gambling was only legal in two states–now, some form of gambling is legal in 48 states.

“The reason we haven’t turned, along with so many other states, is that we’re more conservative,” McDonald said. “We’re not dashing after every little glitzy promise of prosperity. We stick to wise public policy.”

Grinols said, “Texas is doing well economically such that it doesn’t need gambling. Of all the jobs that President Obama has created during his time in office, Texas has created more than the rest of the states combined. Gambling needs Texas much more than Texas needs gambling.”

Follow Kristin Tate on Twitter @KristinBTate.

By PATRICK SVITEK and MITCHELL FERMAN. Texas Tribune

The casino empire helmed by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson is zeroing in on Texas.

Las Vegas Sands, among the world’s largest gaming companies, has set its sights on legalizing casinos in the state with a stable of high-powered lobbyists for the upcoming legislative session — and on Tuesday, a public acknowledgment of its ambitions.

Andy Abboud, Las Vegas Sands’ top lobbyist, said the company was pursuing Texas as one of only a few expansion opportunities, along with places like Japan, Brazil and New York.

“We view Texas as a worldwide destination and one of the top potential markets in the entire world,” Abboud said during a conference hosted by the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. “Texas is considered the biggest plum still waiting to be out there in the history of hospitality and gaming.”

For over a half hour Tuesday, Abboud made a robust pitch for legalizing casino gambling in Texas, putting a clarifying exclamation point on recent speculation that Las Vegas Sands was targeting the state. He proposed a “limited number of destination resorts in Texas,” in or near big cities, that would not aim to replicate Las Vegas but would “blend into existing infrastructure.” He said a “strict regulatory environment” would be an “absolute requirement.” And he urged lawmakers to require bidders to make a “minimum investment of 1 or 2 or 3 billion dollars so that you absolutely only get the best companies bidding and they are forced by law to build an incredible facility.”

Las Vegas Sands’ interest in Texas is coming to light after a November election in which Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, ranked among the top donors to Republicans’ successful battle to preserve their majority in the state House. The couple donated $4.5 million in September to a Texas account affiliated with the Republican State Leadership Committee, the top national GOP group involved in state legislative races.

Previous efforts to legalize casino gambling in Texas have not taken off, though the appetite could be different this session, when lawmakers are faced with a $4.6 billion budget shortfall. That has generated speculation about new revenue sources, including “sin taxes” such as legalizing casino gambling and marijuana.

“They are job creators, they hire a lot of additional employees, they have tremendous purchasing power,” Abboud said of casinos. “But they are also tremendous generators of tax revenue.”

State leaders have shown little openness to more gaming in Texas, let alone casino gambling. In 2015, Gov. Greg Abbott said he “wholeheartedly” supported Texas’ gaming restrictions while ordering state lottery officials to stop exploring sports betting games.

The state has some of the strictest gambling laws in the country, but there are a few exceptions where the practice is allowed, such as bingo, the state lottery, and at horse or greyhound dog races. Through court decisions and legislation in the 1980s, three federally recognized Native American tribes operate casinos with limited games — in Eagle Pass, El Paso and Livingston.

Should Texas Legalize Casino Gambling Winnings

Speculation about Adelson’s plans mounted in recent weeks as Las Vegas Sands hired 10 lobbyists who are deeply connected at the Capitol. They include people like Gavin Massingill, chief of staff to outgoing House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton; Drew DeBerry, a former senior staffer to Abbott; Karen Rove, the wife of veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove; and Mike Toomey, a chief of staff to two former governors.

Toomey left lobbying earlier this year to serve as chief operating officer of Abbott’s Strike Force to Open Texas, focused on business reopenings during the coronavirus pandemic.

While Abboud spoke effusively Tuesday about the potential for Texas to become a world-class destination for casino gambling, he sought to keep expectations in check when it comes to the industry’s fiscal impact.

“We should be very clear,” Abboud said. “We will never pretend to say that we will solve all the economic problems of a state. We will help diversify an economy because of the wide range of taxes that we pay.”

In Texas, for example, casino gambling could help guard against the volatility of the oil and gas industry, Abboud said.

Asked if Las Vegas Sands has found states to be more amenable to casinos if their revenue is dedicated to something like public education, Abboud said Las Vegas Sands has not taken a position on that, believing it is a decision best left up to lawmakers.

State Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, introduced a bill last session that would have asked voters to approve casino gambling in certain parts of the Texas coast as a way of increasing funding for insurance for those living in the hurricane-prone region. Deshotel’s legislation got a committee hearing but went nowhere after that.

Deshotel has filed nearly identical legislation for the upcoming session.

Should Texas Legalize Casino Gambling Losses

“I’m very encouraged that a major casino operator is interested in Texas,” Deshotel said in a statement Wednesday. “It makes no sense for Texans to send hundreds of millions of dollars to other state coffers. Not to mention all the good paying jobs it will create.”

Last session, Deshotel’s bill ran into opposition from groups like the socially conservative Texas Values and the Texas Baptists Christian Life Commission. A lobbyist for the commission, Rob Kohler, said Wednesday it would be “absolutely impossible” under federal law for Texas to pursue the limited destination gambling that Abboud pitched without opening the state to a flood of casinos like Oklahoma has experienced. Kohler also said he did not see any changes in lawmakers’ desires for casino gambling heading into the next session.

“We think that the elected members of the Legislature, as in the past, would recognize that this type of opportunity is not economic development and will end up hurting the state more than it would end up helping it,” Kohler said.

Texas Values reiterated its opposition Wednesday.

“We don’t support legalization of casinos in Texas,” said Jonathan Covey, policy director for Texas Values. “It’s not good for the economy and it’s not good for families.”

Abboud emphasized Tuesday that voter approval is the first step in his company’s vision for Texas.

“All that will happen in the Legislature this next session is for the state Legislature to put it on the ballot and to let voters decide,” Abboud said. “And then business leaders and community groups and the policymakers need to get involved in the process and make sure that this is done the right way.”

At the end of his talk with the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, Abboud urged anybody with questions to reach out to him and said his company is a “big, wide open, transparent book.”

“We’re proud of our product,” he concluded, “and we want to bring it to Texas.”