I read with interest the post by Iggy a couple of days ago about the fight to protect poker in Washington DC and across the country. He was dead on and I especially appreciated his enumeration of the arguments to use when speaking and working to this end.
Here in Texas, we have a similar fight going on. We are behind much of the country though in terms of what poker is allowed by law.
Below is an op-ed i recently wrote for a Dallas weekly sports magazine. I'll let it speak for itself. Feel free to email me (info@texaspokerpac.com) if you have any questions or comments.
Thanks to Dan and Party Poker for the opportunity to plug for the cause...
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Deal With It
By Mike Lavigne
Over the past decade, poker has evolved from a smoky backroom game associated with road gamblers and outlaws into a favorite American pastime and the third most watched "sport" on television. Enjoyed by more than 60 million Americans, poker is now a multibillion-dollar industry replete with television rights and advertising dollars often outpacing even the biggest of pots
Texans such as Doyle Brunson, Jack Binion, and Phil Gordon have been instrumental in building the game into what it is today. Meanwhile, Texas players like T.J. Cloutier, David Williams and Clonie Gowen continue to dominate the professional circuit. The game is inseparable from Texas - yet it remains essentially illegal across the state.
The laws governing this beloved recreational activity in Texas are
outdated, unclear and inconsistently enforced.
Recently in Dallas there was a high profile bust of a popular underground poker room. Police and SWAT swarmed the room followed by television cameras from A&E’s television show, Dallas SWAT. Between 70-80 people were issued citations with some even being thrown in jail.
The merits of this particular case are questionable, with trespassing issues along with issues as to whether the games being played that particular night were even illegal. This is of little consequence though, as it is only a matter of time before the cops are able to make a clean bust in Dallas. On any given night in the Metroplex, hundreds of people gather in poker rooms to play Texas Hold’em and other variations of poker. They play each other and not the house. These rooms don’t resemble casinos at all. There are no slot machines, blackjack tables, roulette wheels or sports books.
The laws in Texas are so grey and difficult to interpret that an attorney general’s opinion was needed recently to prevent authorities from stopping free games in bars. Recently, even high profile charitable tournaments slated to raise millions of dollars in Houston and Dallas have been called off for fear of hassles from law enforcement.
The bad laws don’t just stop at big public events or underground rooms. Even your home game could be illegal if you pay a dealer or buy a pizza out of the pot.
Meanwhile, the state has recognized poker’s popularity and now has a lottery scratch off game banking on the World Poker Tour brand. Unfortunately, your odds are better of winning the World Series of Poker than hitting the lottery.
Poker attracts adult men and women of all ages and persuasions. Chances are, you know someone who has been or frequents an underground poker room. On any given night in Dallas you’ll find lawyers, scientists, architects, doctors and yes, even police officers, battling over low stakes pots.
As a result of the bust and rumors of more to come, many rooms have shut their doors until the heat cools a bit. Now, many of those who wish to play poker competitively will be forced to drive North to Oklahoma, East to Louisiana or they can stay home and play online (until Congress decides that is illegal too). Either way, Texas loses. As it stands now, hundreds of thousands of dollars trade hands across this state totally unregulated and unaccounted for. No taxes are paid, and no municipality or state service benefits.
Meanwhile, Texas has more uninsured children than any other state, with 1 in 4 lacking health care. Public schools are hurting for funds, with teacher salaries well below the national average and per-student spending on the decline. Texas also has the highest sales tax and some of the highest property taxes in the nation. All this and we are facing a possible shortfall in the state budget between 1 and 7 billion dollars over the next two years.
Regulating poker would provide tremendous revenue for the state coffers and the municipalities who allow it. Even just expanding charitable poker would provide added monies for those non-profit organization that pick up the slack for government. Instead, law-abiding citizens are left to engage in "criminal" activity for playing a game they love and charitable tournaments are often shuttered before they even open their doors.
Fortunately, there is a way to change all this. The Texas State Legislature meets in January. Groups like the Texas Poker PAC and the Texas Cardplayer’s Association want to see poker expanded in Texas. We share the goals of seeing poker become safe, legal and accessible in Texas. The best and quickest way to do this is via new legislation rather than pushing for some sort of statewide vote. The reasons for this approach are multifaceted, but quite simply we will likely never have the supermajority of votes in the Legislature necessary to put this on a ballot.
You can help us represent poker players by joining one of these organizations today. The key to influencing our Legislature is in our numbers.
Texas has two choices. We can: 1) stick our heads in the sand and hope poker just goes away while we lose Texas dollars to Oklahoma, Louisiana and soon Mexico, or 2) we can shuffle up and deal with it.
Mike Lavigne is the Treasurer of the Texas Poker PAC (www.texaspokerpac.com) and a board member of the Texas Cardplayers Association (www.texascardplayersassociation.com)
