The Las Vegas Sands corporation is set to run ads to convince Texas lawmakers to pass a bill allowing for four destination casinos in our biggest cities, Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.
Rice University political scientist Mark Jones say they're very invested, having paid more than 50 lobbyists some five million dollars to push their agenda. "Now they are trying to saturate the airways, with the goal of convincing some recalcitrant Republican leaders to change their position."
Jones says they won't. He says there's a threefold opposition within the GOP. One group opposes it for moral reasons, another because they think there are social ills associated with gambling such as gambling addiction and a third doesn't think it's a good business practice since most of the profit goes to out of state corporations.
He believes Lt. Governor Dan Patrick will hold firm to the same position he's held over a decade, and that's no to gambling. "The Las Vegas Sands can spend as much money as they want on lobbyists and TV commercials, but as long as Patrick remains opposed, their legislation is not going to see the light of day in the senate." He notes that's even as an overwhelming majority of Texans would vote yes on casino gambling, should it ever make it to the ballot.
Jones says the real winners are the lobbyists. "This strikes me as there's a set of lobbyists and political consultants getting rich via the Las Vegas Sands, but with the reality being the Las Vegas Sands might as well be burning its money."
This sort of legislation comes up every legislation session. Jones says in the past the pro gambling interests could never get on the same page. The horse tracks were at odds with the destination casinos who were at odds with the tribal gamers. "This time around the Sands said effectively, 'forget you, we're going to do it on our own. Y'all can get get out of the way."
Jones says the state was facing a severe budget crisis in July but things have gotten better, making gaming legislation even more unlikely.