Abbott Signals Openness to Allowing Casinos in Texas

[JoshuaMarshall]

Las Vegas is a perfect example of how the casino can improve the economy of the city, attract tourists and make the city famous in the world. But it happened not in one year. And what about Texas - it will never be a second Las Vegas.
If we're talking about the economic benefits of legalizing casinos, then I don't think that it will change the situation a lot.

[Dopo]

I don’t want to have Las Vegas
I just want to keep in Texas the gambling money that goes to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana

[JoshuaMarshall]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

No, petrochem facilities don't have a lot of low-wage jobs on site. Even the outside contractors are generally at least middle-wage; nobody works there that doesn't have some sort of post-HS education / training that boosts their pay. The knock against petrochem is that the overall job count isn't what it used to be, due mainly to automation - low job count relative to capital investment (though a large plant may still have over 100 jobs and really giant facilities have a lot more than that).

I was talking about casinos as an economic development strategy. To me, it's similar to retail. You get tax revenue, maybe some outside spending, some number of middle to higher wage jobs, and a bunch of jobs that don't pay much and don't have much advancement potential. Now, if it's a community with high unemployment, a low wage job is better than no job. But does a casino truly provide a foundation for a community to advance itself economically?Now we have a lot of online casinos online, and more and more people prefer playing online. Some time ago, I also started playing from time to time, and also online. On https://betbetter-mi.com/ I read about the best casinos now and chose the one I liked, and there is no need to go somewhere. I struggle to identify a place where that's happened, other than Las Vegas, which took decades to get real employment outside of hospitality (and where less expensive housing and regulation / taxes than SoCal is probably as much an economic driver as anything). Sure, LV, AC, and native reservations have more tax dollars than previously - perhaps wise use of that resource can lead to other economic development. What's Biloxi doing economically, outside of the casino? (I'm ignorant on Biloxi, so maybe it's a good counterexample.)

Originally Posted by JoshuaMarshall

Las Vegas is a perfect example of how the casino can improve the economy of the city, attract tourists and make the city famous in the world. But it happened not in one year. And what about Texas - it will never be a second Las Vegas.
If we're talking about the economic benefits of legalizing casinos, then I don't think that it will change the situation a lot.

I also wanted to add something to these messages. "But does a casino truly provide a foundation for a community to advance itself economically?" - I was thinking about it too, but as I said, we ( I hope ) will never be the second Las Vegas, and I don't believe that there will be massive economic growth. I found this article https://www.richmondfed.org/publicat.../2022/eb_22-28 which provides quite interesting information on that issue. Here is a very interesting quote from the article -
"Research suggests that casinos are more likely to support economic growth in less dense areas that do not have to compete with nearby casinos, but the evidence of increased tax revenue is limited." - yes, there can be indeed a positive impact on the local economy, but it's hard to predict how big that will be.

Also, casinos will create new workplaces, which can be good news for unemployed people. And in general, I want to say that there will be different benefits, and what about the negative side? Gambling can cause addiction, increase crime rates, and so on.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about opening new casinos and, in general, legalizing them. I think I need to do deeper research on it to understand everything better.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by JoshuaMarshall

Las Vegas is a perfect example of how the casino can improve the economy of the city, attract tourists and make the city famous in the world. But it happened not in one year. And what about Texas - it will never be a second Las Vegas.
If we're talking about the economic benefits of legalizing casinos, then I don't think that it will change the situation a lot.

His argument is that “well Las Vegas doesn’t just happen”. Which is a bad argument as that’s entirely irrelevant. Hospitality work is hospitality work whether it’s 100 jobs or 100 thousand. And the only people that don’t know hospitality work can provide a living wage haven’t worked in a full service resort of this nature.

[d.ramos]

@JoshuaMarshall, Louisiana has gambling but it hasn't helped the economy all that much. Most of New Orleans is a dump outside the downtown french quarter and heavy tourist areas. I'm not opposed to having casinos or other forms of gambling but I don't see how it would improve things or make the average person's life any better.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I don’t want to have Las Vegas
I just want to keep in Texas the gambling money that goes to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana

Same here.

[JoshuaMarshall]

Originally Posted by d.ramos

@JoshuaMarshall, Louisiana has gambling but it hasn't helped the economy all that much. Most of New Orleans is a dump outside the downtown french quarter and heavy tourist areas. I'm not opposed to having casinos or other forms of gambling but I don't see how it would improve things or make the average person's life any better.

I agree with you. I also don't see any advantages of it for average people.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by d.ramos

@JoshuaMarshall, Louisiana has gambling but it hasn't helped the economy all that much. Most of New Orleans is a dump outside the downtown french quarter and heavy tourist areas. I'm not opposed to having casinos or other forms of gambling but I don't see how it would improve things or make the average person's life any better.

New Orleans is not a casino city. Lake Charles and Shreveport are. Shreveports casinos are “cheap” and outdated. Lake Charles has luxury casinos and the city has benefited a lot from them. Nelson Road went through a business boom to benefit from the extra tourism to the area. This was also during the 2015 “oil bust” which impacted that town being that it’s the town’s other major industry.. so to see a business boom during that specific era says a lot.

I’m sure Shreveport’s casinos spawned a business boom of their own when they first opened despite their lower quality.

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by d.ramos

@JoshuaMarshall, Louisiana has gambling but it hasn't helped the economy all that much. Most of New Orleans is a dump outside the downtown french quarter and heavy tourist areas. I'm not opposed to having casinos or other forms of gambling but I don't see how it would improve things or make the average person's life any better.

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

New Orleans is not a casino city. Lake Charles and Shreveport are. Shreveports casinos are “cheap” and outdated. Lake Charles has luxury casinos and the city has benefited a lot from them. Nelson Road went through a business boom to benefit from the extra tourism to the area. This was also during the 2015 “oil bust” which impacted that town being that it’s the town’s other major industry.. so to see a business boom during that specific era says a lot.

I’m sure Shreveport’s casinos spawned a business boom of their own when they first opened despite their lower quality.

https://www.casinosofla.com/how-louisiana-wins.asp

Since 1994, Louisiana riverboats have contributed over $2.02 billion in state and $557 million in local taxes. In FY 2002-2003 the riverboat casinos alone paid the state over $335 million in gaming taxes, with another $78 million going to local governments.

Since its inception, the riverboat casinos have made more than $1.7 billion in capital investments including hotels, shoreline and marine facilities, parking areas and live entertainment facilities.

The jobs provided by the riverboats have also allowed our employees and their families to purchase nearly 4,000 homes, 9,000 cars and 10,000 major household appliances in one year. (Source: Coopers & Lybrand study, March 1997)

[brock2010]

I wouldn't mind casino gambling here in Texas. Oklahoma and Louisiana might not like it, lol!