"Seven Out!"

In Texas law, a bet is defined as “an agreement to win or lose something of value solely or partially by chance” with few exceptions. The law is pretty straightforward in stating that betting on the results of elections, outcome of games or contests (sporting events), and “betting on any game played with cards, dice, balls, or any other gambling device” is considered gambling and is covered by the law.

A main argument people usually give for the legalization of gambling in our state is that Texas is losing out on money from the people who travel to Louisiana or Oklahoma. Have these people driven on Louisiana’s roads recently? Not impressive by any standards... Are they envious of Louisiana’s low public school system rankings? Where is the money from their casino gambling going? Because it sure is not showing that it benefits their state in any way. So what is to say Texas would be any different in that sense? The Texas lottery already does not benefit education as much as they would like you to think it does. It’s very deceiving and it may sound good, but how much are the schools really getting?

I have no problem with gambling, but prove to me that legalizing casinos is truly going to benefit the state and the taxpayers. There needs to be accountability for the gaming money. If it were to be legalized, grant only a set amount of permits for casinos to build and stick to it (I’d rather not have a casino on every corner, or slot machines in every Wal-Mart-type thing), but that won’t happen because money talks (which is also why the State Capitol is hardly visible anymore among the high condos going up everywhere downtown). Once they allocate unlimited gambling there’s no stopping it. So show me that the public school system would get a substantial amount and not just let the money go back into the casinos and their owners. Awful school rankings and hundreds of huge, luxurious casinos; something isn’t right with those priorities.

I rather like the fact that Shreveport is in Louisiana and not in my hometown. Many towns in Texas would lose their character if unlimited gambling were permitted, especially Austin. Goodbye to the live music scene...