What politicians in Texas like Rick Perry fail to understand is the peril posed by not legalizing and regulating gaming. Safety issues and bad influences are usually top of the lists of reasons that they oppose legalizing gambling. The truth of the matter is that the banning of legalized gambling has fuel a number of very dangerous and profitable enterprises.
While there are a lot of slot machine operations around the private poker games are real common, lucrative, and dicey businesses. In Texas it is legal to have a privately held game in a home....they are legal as long as the person hosting the game is not taking a fee/rake of the money in play. People can play for any stakes legally and there are many home games attended by good friends that have been going on successfully for years.
Since the great poker boom which started in 2003, for profit home games have started springing up all over the place. I would not be surprised if there are not illegal operations going on in virtually every city or small town in the State. For a small fee on each pot played the "house" is making a lot of money. Most of the people putting on these games have sophisticated survellience equipment...camera systems that cover the whole exterior of the buildings where the games are played.
It is not uncommon to hear of police raids on these games and large amounts of cash confiscated. One was a couple of years ago in McKinney where some prominent citizens were given citations if not arrested on the spot. Every few months we in the poker world hear of these raids as they don't always make the mainstream news. One thing you do not hear so much about are home game invasions where robbers come in armed and order all the money be handed over. A few months ago a young man outside of Dallas was killed in such an armed robbery. These happen routinely but you rarely hear about them in the news since they usually don't get reported since the robbers do not usually resort to violence unless challenged. There is so much money involved that the practice of hosting the home games continues to grow. It is common for many thousands of dollars to be involved.
It seems that one of the most dangerous aspects of these games are the potential for violence and it just does not end with the players who you might say are willing participants. While some of these games are held in warehouse settings with many tables set up, many are held in apartments and residential areas. Many of these games are in homes where families with children live and you can bet that if there is a threat that a game may be invaded by armed thugs that the players in the games are more than likely armed themselves. A lot of children in that home or just in the neighborhood may be at risk.
Also at these "home" games it is common practice for alcohol to be served. This also bypasses the liquior laws of the State if the drinks are being provided for a fee. That further compromises the safety of the players and possibly families that are present.
It just does not make sense to continue this ban in Texas....at least let the voters decide...let the communities decide. The refusal of Rick Perry and other like-minded politicos to allow a vote on this is symbolic and pandering to specific groups. The bill in the legislature this term was through committee and was ready for a vote and there were enough votes to pass but Rick Perry vowed to veto the bill so it was not worth the time and effort of the supporters. There were not enough votes to override the veto.
The sad thing is that if and when the bill passed, it would still have to be voted on by residents of the Great State of Texas. What Perry is saying is that the people in this state cannot even have the chance to make the decision for themselves........just pandering plain and simple......sad for us, our education system, our low income and unemployed citizens...people losing their homes....people that like to play games and have to go elsewhere.....just politics as usual.
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