AUSTIN -- Gambling supporters say it's time to roll the dice and let Texans say whether they want Las Vegas-style casinos and racetrack slot machines across the state.
Texas Gaming Association officials, who released a poll Monday in which 86 percent of respondents want to vote on whether to allow casinos, are lining up behind a bill geared to expand gambling, which they say could generate more than $6.6 billion in revenue and more than $1.2 billion in taxes a year."The bill is so overpowering in what it will do for Texas," association Chairman Jack E. Pratt said. "States, cities, counties will be pressed in years to come."This is a new source of revenue. We think it's an economic development bill."Today, lawmakers are expected to hear new arguments in the decades-old effort to expand gambling in Texas, as proponents and opponents are to present their cases to the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee. This bill would create a Texas Gaming Commission to regulate eight "destination" casinos and eight "racinos," or racetracks with slot machines.Win for Texas, a group supporting slot machines, released a report Monday predicting that about $2.2 billion of the $2.7 billion that Texans spend gambling in other states could be kept in Texas if slot machines are allowed just at current racetracks and Indian reservations.Opponents say expanding gambling in Texas isn't worth the cost."We don't think it's a good idea," said Rob Kohler, a consultant with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission. "The state is better off without it."Two years ago, gambling proponents supported a bill that would have allowed 12 destination casinos and "racinos." At the time, some lawmakers felt that that would be too many places to gamble.Of the 86 percent of survey respondents who want to vote on casino gambling, 67 percent say they support it and 29 percent say they don't. Four percent are undecided or wouldn't vote. The gaming association found 66 percent support for casinos among North Texas respondents, compared with 73 percent in Houston, 68 percent in South Texas, 63 percent in West Texas and 59 percent in Austin.The association projects that Texas casinos would generate more than $2 billion in non-gambling revenue through hotels, food, retail and entertainment. It projects that nearly 40,000 full-time jobs would be created when casinos are up and running and that as much as $12 billion could be invested on casinos statewide.The study was based on the assumption of one destination casino in Fort Worth, two in Dallas, two in Houston, and one apiece in San Antonio, Galveston and South Padre Island.It also assumes that slots would be added at Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, Sam Houston Race Park in Houston, Retama Park in San Antonio and five other racetracks.State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, said expanding gambling won't affect the budget deficit that lawmakers must address this year."Long-term, it deserves careful consideration," he said. "But it takes 100 votes to get an issue to the voters, and no one has come asking for mine."State Rep. Mark Shelton, R-Fort Worth, said he doesn't support this effort."If gambling comes to the floor of the House, I will vote no," he said. "I just don't think it's in the best long-term interest of the state."Anna M. Tinsley, 817-390-7610Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
