Charlie Geren, Texas State Representative, decided to shake things up. He filed for the House Joint Resolution 97 legislation, which may lead to major changes in the Texas Constitution.

Casinos in attractive locations:

Seven new casino resorts may be opening in Texas. Among them are two in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as two resorts in the Houston area, one in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and McAllen. As stated in the bill, these locations are chosen because they would impact the state’s economy best.

Geren says that’s what the state needs at the moment, considering the fact that the state is losing enormous amounts of money to huge gambling markets.

Besides the casinos, the plans feature many hotels, restaurants, showrooms, shopping centers, meeting facilities, and more. The purpose of all these entertainments is to create job opportunities for the residents, as well as to generate the revenue the state will benefit from. The expected tax from gross gaming revenue is 15%.

Slot machines still won’t be allowed in convenience stores and such places. Apart from that, we still don’t know many details about the future casinos, but the bill that would explain a lot will be filled soon.

One of the biggest casino operators in Las Vegas, the Sands Corporation, has wanted this for years. The company even placed an ad advocating this idea during the NFL playoff game.

The company formed the Texas Destination Resort Alliance. 

Matt Hirsch, the company’s spokesman, said: “These destination resorts will bring massive economic benefits to the state, including tens of thousands of jobs. We look forward to working alongside the Texas legislature and ultimately gaining the support of Texans to make destination resorts a reality.”

The Chickasaw Nation also supports this legislation since it owns Lone Star Park casino in Grand Prairie and operates the Winstar Casino in Oklahoma. Lone Star Park will be able to bid for one of the resorts, allowing them to expand to Texas.

The public may have the final word:

One of the opponents of the legislation, State Representative Matt Shaheen, said: “If you look at other states that have legalized or expanded gambling, they were promised all these wonderful things about additional revenues and additional economic impact. But nobody talks about the increased homelessness, domestic abuse, those types of issues that come with legalized gambling, and those are the concerns I have.”

Sports betting is the most supported in Texas – Geren’s legislation pushes towards legalizing it, but the Texas Sports Betting Alliance also wants to legalize it. However, the state constitution must be changed to allow sports betting in the state.

The majority of two-thirds of the House and Senate Representatives must agree to this decision. After that, the voters will get a chance to express their opinion about the matter in November. Geren said that he hoped the voters would get an opportunity to participate in making this decision since the expected number of voters who support this legislation is about 85%.