[ Home ]

[ Slots News ]

Will Slots Come to the Lone Star State?    (3 of 3)

Preliminary estimates state that Texan casinos could provide a fifty billion dollar shot in the arm for the economy, bringing between three and a quarter to four and a half billion dollars in taxable revenue, plus over three hundred thousand jobs. With a budget crunch leeching vital dollars away from education and transportation, Ellis argues, there is no way that the state can afford NOT to consider this alternative. It’s not even about slots and gambling, he says – it’s about the economy.

Opponents of bringing slot machines and expanded gambling into the Lone Star State point to the problems that Maryland is facing with having done just that. Governor Martin O’Malley has egg on his face after pushing hard to have a gambling bill authorized by the Legislature and passed by voters – that state made provisions for five casino sites to be built, and has to date not managed to secure bids from development firms for all the locations. With the poor state of the national economy, few developers are willing to take a risk on building casinos in an untried market. Then, of course, there are those who oppose slot games and other forms of betting on moral grounds, and cannot be convinced that the potential benefits to the state budget are worth the perceived risks to public safety and their belief that a rise in problem gambling (addictions) are inevitable.

The anti-slots lobby counters that building new casinos is not a viable way to boost the economy, as it only draws residents’ money away from other forms of spending, and is not a realistic form of tourism.

Back to February 2009 Archive.