Posted on 05/09/2011 5:11:32 AM PDT by BillKneer
ACTION STEP: Please contact your Texas Legislators and tell them that we do not want any expansion of gambling in our state. Ask them to vote against both Rep. Hamilton’s HJR 147 and Rep. Hilderbran’s HB 254. Hilderbran’s bill is making rapid progress and is on the General State Calendar for this Tuesday, on 5.10.11.
Hilderbran’s bill makes Texas horse racing derbies possible; and, of course, the next small step would be a piece of legislation to open the way for racetrack casinos (“racinos”) at those horse racing derbies.
We do not want any expansion whatsoever of gambling in Texas because the net loss to communities outweighed the benefits 3 to 1!
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Rep. Mike Hamilton (R – Mauriceville) is the chair of the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee and was appointed by Speaker Straus.
Speaker Straus (R – San Antonio) and his family have made their fortune from gambling interests.
Legislation that involves the expansion of gambling will normally come before the Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee (L&A).
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotstatesman.com ...
I agree that casino gambling will not pay off, it’s a bad call. I wish the article could have also contained a move to eliminate the state lottery. Texas Lotto like all other lotteries has always been a sucker bet, designed not to pay out.
I once heard John Sharp say that playing the lottery in Texas is like placing beer bottles side by side along I-10 from El Paso to Beaumont and then picking 6. That was when there were still 60 numbers. The line of bottles now might stretch to Lafayette, LA.
Please be so kind as to provide some supporting documentation and/or links that would tend to prove that statement.
Consider the lottery. Most lottery sales take place in the poorest of communities. This is pretty much free money for the government and less money that would need to be taken from higher income taxpayers.
Also consider that people will gamble anyway, in the case of Maryland, many people here who wanted to gamble would go to neighboring states to do it. If they're gonna gamble, why not keep that money in your home state instead?
We do not want any expansion whatsoever of gambling in Texas because the net loss to communities outweighed the benefits 3 to 1!
Shuffle up and deal............
Texas has been all over the park on legalized gambling. Texas one of the largest horse breeding states went through the ups/down of legalized gambling on horse racing.
example:
The Texas legislature voted to repeal the pari-mutel laws at the end of the regular session in 1937. It was a setback that the Texas racing industry would have to endure and finally, in 1987, the Texas legislature voted to legalize pari-mutuel wagering in Texas.
50 Years but Texas got horse racing back.
I’m surprised the Indian Reservations haven’t taken a major role in getting casinos on their lands.
First, the article states that a major Texas politician’s family made their money through gambling. Isn't gambling already illegal? If so, what weren't the elder members of that family jailed?
Second, as Prohibition proved, making something illegal doesn't solve the problem. If the Texan society decides that something has to be corrected they will correct it because social problems have to corrected at the individual level (see MADD as a supporting example). making something illegal doesn't solve a social problem.
A few casinos in Galveston would be a swell idea...
Your hypothesis assumes that government spending is a fixed quantity. It isn't. An extra dollar conned out of lotto players won't be used to offset taxes elsewhere; it will simply be an additional dollar spent by government in some other wasteful scheme. Lotto just gives governments more money to spend, and they do.
A con? Come on. No form of gambling is a con by definition because the gambler himself is playing upon his own greed by playing the game.
Lotto just gives governments more money to spend, and they do.
And that is the true beauty of legalized gambling. If one feels this way, he can choose to not give the government more money by not participating. I'd take that over taxes any day of the week.
1. Gaming is not economic development—it’s revenue development for politicians who want more money to buy votes.
2. The few jobs that gaming creates are low-paying, no-benefit jobs: dealers, bartenders, and cocktail waitresses, pawn shops, liquor stores, check cashing, pot shops, slum motels.
3. Gaming is a giant suction pump that removes cash from the local economy and pipes it elsewhere.
4. Gaming attracts the homeless, drunks, prostitutes, drugs, gangs and promotes every form of illegal behavior including rape, murder, armed robbery, drug trafficing, prostitution, human trafficing, and car theft.
5. Gaming does not stimulate ANY spinoff development in the area, since ALL economic activity is conducted inside the walls of the casinos: retail, restaurants, gift shops, entertainment—EVERYTHING. The streets become dingy, dirty and the storefronts become liquor stores and pawn shops.
6. Gaming enriches politicians and the worst elelments of society.
7. My objection is strictly on a cost/benefit, economic basis: GAMING IS NOT WORTH THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS!!!
You are delusional....are you a politician....just spew assertions out with nothing to back them up....tell your nonsense to the Indian tribes in Oklahoma....
This is silly. Legalized drugs provides new jobs for an economy that desparately needs them. Besides, what better way is there to get people who would otherwise pay no taxes to pay for their fair share of the cost of government?
Consider the drugs. Most drug sales take place in the poorest of communities. This is pretty much free money for the government and less money that would need to be taken from higher income taxpayers.
Also consider that people will use drugs anyway, in the case of Maryland, many people here who wanted to use drugs would go to neighboring places to do it. If they’re gonna use drugs, why not keep that money in your home state instead?
Nah...He’s right. The wife and I go to Winstar every couple months. We always knock over a liquor store or a pawn shop and pick up some hookers on the way.
The lottery is a tax on stupidity.
So yes, legalize drugs, and expand legalized gambling.
ShreveBo wouldn’t be too happy.
Take a trip to Reno, Nevada. Look around. Then get back to me.
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