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Legalizing Poker in Texas closer than you think.

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  1. tigertoes tigertoes is offline

    Posts: 498
    Joined: Jun 05

    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 6:11pm)

    Spoke with a friend today and he was telling me that there is a push underway to legalize poker rooms in Texas.
    Three bills are under consideration right now.

    HB33-51 would allow slot machines in ceratin venues.

    HB 31-86 wold authorize and regulate poker gaming, including Texas Hold'em. The kicker is it would only be legal, under this bill in certain bars, racetracks and for charitable tournaments.

    The last bill, HB 33-26 would allow operation of slot machines at horse and grey hound tracks.

    Seems some state officials are upset all the money is leaving Texas for surrounding states like Oklahoma and Louisana where poker is legal. No word on when a Legislative vote on the issue will take place.

    Hopefully some good news for the rest of us that this is being considered. Maybe it will have a funnel affect and more support, if is in fact it becomes reality in Texas, from legislators will help the online side of things.
  2. dd dd is offline

    Monroe, LA
    United States

    Posts: 1,596
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    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 6:25pm) in reply to tigertoes

    lol @ slots....

    talk about -EV
  3. Ulysses78 Ulysses78 is offline

    Chapel Hill, NC
    United States

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    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 6:34pm) in reply to dd

    you don't get much more +EV than slots...for the state. well, i guess there's always the lottery.
  4. atptim atptim is offline

    Houston, TX
    United States

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    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 6:49pm) in reply to Ulysses78

    Just so everyone knows, there have been a few posts about the poker bill in the last few days, anyone who is interested can look those posts up. The Texas Poker PAC is the organization behind the poker bill and there was a hearing on it yesterday. I was in contact with the folks at the PAC last friday helping them out a bit and they seemed to be very knowledgable and very on top of things so here's to hopeing. Someone posted on here earlier and states that he had some inside info. that there was very little organized opposition to the bill.
  5. katdragon katdragon is offline

    United States

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    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 6:51pm) in reply to tigertoes

    Indian Casinos in southern Oklahoma and regular casinos in Louisana have about 90% texas tags on cars in the parking lots. Texas is losing a huge amount of revenue to those states. Prior to this the horse racing commission and the lottery commission have really worked against any kind of gambling legalized in Texas. The theory is that people will only spend x amount of dollars on gambling and they don't want slots and poker detracting from their revenues. The party line has been a straight morals issue, 'cause its the bible belt. Things are changing, but the way they are setting it up will be very limited and not very good for the end user (us). Will be some kind of charity bullshit setup the way bingo parlors are now. But, hey its a step. Kat
  6. tigertoes tigertoes is offline

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    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 7:57pm) in reply to katdragon

    I know. After this passes they should have a charity game with Senator Bill Frist, Senator Jon Kyl and a couple of pros like Negreanu, Ivey, oh and a few online pros like BelowAbove and Annette_15. Let's see if the senators theory that its a game of chance holds-up.
    Thread Starter
  7. atptim atptim is offline

    Houston, TX
    United States

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    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 8:18pm) in reply to katdragon

    An interesting note is that that the bill limits cardrooms to four tables UNLESS the card room is at a dog track. So the dog track people are on this bills side and you can take that camp out of the opposition. The bible thumpers have been quite thusfar from what I understand, but we shall see.
  8. DrinkingProblem DrinkingProblem is offline

    Little Falls, NJ
    United States

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    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 8:36pm) in reply to atptim

    www.cnn.com
    covered the story today.
  9. Kajun Kajun is offline

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    Apr 4th, 2007 (4/4/2007 9:08pm) in reply to DrinkingProblem

    As a resident of Louisiana this is bad news for me as a poker player. I love playing against the texans at the casino, we have even invited a few home to our home games.

    My uncle lives in Tyler, Texas and at a local pool hall, they openely played Texas Holdem, they even have 3 poker tables. I sat down and won about $600 before some Texan wanted to fight with me. Luckily my uncle knows the owner of the place and kept me out of trouble.

    Texas has some strange laws, I remember walking into the pool hall and having to pay like $1 to join some club that way I could "legally" drink in a dry county... go figure..

    LOL
  10. Fox Fox is offline

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    Apr 5th, 2007 (4/5/2007 3:55pm) in reply to atptim

    I've had a number of students from Texas, and they have all told me that there are tons of places to paly, some of them not even really trying to cover up the fact that they are cardrooms. If it's anything like it was in Minnesota when we got poker at the horse track, those illegal rooms that ahve been left alone can expect to start getting busted when the law passes. The dog tracks are going to drop some money to make sure they have as little competition as possible, and the govt is going to protectthe places they can tax heavily, so the "illegal" rooms are likely to see problems very soon.
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