Texas Bill Presented to Shut Down Membership Poker Clubs (1 Viewer)

That 1 line change should make it clear and shut them down, if it passes.

Ironically, I read a article in the Dallas Morning News today where the governor seemed to be open to sports betting for the first time. I speculate that once sports betting is allowed, poker and other gambling would follow.
 
“Without the membership poker rooms, poker would return to “underground” games, which is how things operated in the past in Texas. These games were notorious for illegal activities and few player protections, which is a main advantage of the current situation.”

My guess is that while these membership rooms are safer for players, actual regulated rooms would be even safer. This bill 100% sucks because adults should be allowed to play poker. What they need to do is recognize that they have a booming industry, legalize it and regulate it. Get your shit together, Texas!
 
dkersey said:
I speculate that once sports betting is allowed, poker and other gambling would follow.
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Oh let me rant about that.
Once upon a time, there were two great poker rooms within a couple miles of each other - The Poker Room in Hampton Falls, NH and Seabrook Poker room. The rooms were similarly sized - at any given time, they’d probably both have 2-8 cash games running and they both had ROBUST tournament schedules. On any weeknight you could find a tournament with 20-40 or more runners in one place or the other. But from Friday through Sunday they’d each run multiple big MTTs - if there were only 30 runners playing in a tournament in one room, it’s because there were 100 playing in the other. No exaggeration, there were probably at least 6 tournaments with 30-100+ runners every weekend, between the two rooms.
A Vegas outfit bought Seabrook. Then they bought Hampton and shut it down. But they were still running 100+ runner MTTs at Seabrook, so no big deal.
Then Covid hit and shut everything down. But while that was happening they were remodeling, because surprise surprise, the state had legalized sports betting, and they got one of the licenses. Shocker that some Vegas outfit showed up and stumbled into that, right?
So where are they today? Biggest sports book in the state. Table games. Stadium gaming. All sorts of gambling. And about 4 cash poker tables. And no tournaments.

Tl;dr - when a place can make money on sports betting, labor intensive things like poker are less attractive revenue streams. At least from what I’ve seen.
 
upNdown said:
Oh let me rant about that.
Once upon a time, there were two great poker rooms within a couple miles of each other - The Poker Room in Hampton Falls, NH and Seabrook Poker room. The rooms were similarly sized - at any given time, they’d probably both have 2-8 cash games running and they both had ROBUST tournament schedules. On any weeknight you could find a tournament with 20-40 or more runners in one place or the other. But from Friday through Sunday they’d each run multiple big MTTs - if there were only 30 runners playing in a tournament in one room, it’s because there were 100 playing in the other. No exaggeration, there were probably at least 6 tournaments with 30-100+ runners every weekend, between the two rooms.
A Vegas outfit bought Seabrook. Then they bought Hampton and shut it down. But they were still running 100+ runner MTTs at Seabrook, so no big deal.
Then Covid hit and shut everything down. But while that was happening they were remodeling, because surprise surprise, the state had legalized sports betting, and they got one of the licenses. Shocker that some Vegas outfit showed up and stumbled into that, right?
So where are they today? Biggest sports book in the state. Table games. Stadium gaming. All sorts of gambling. And about 4 cash poker tables. And no tournaments.

Tl;dr - when a place can make money on sports betting, labor intensive things like poker are less attractive revenue streams. At least from what I’ve seen.
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Texas hates tournaments too.
 
doublebooyah85 said:
Not incorrectly reported but they filed it incorrectly and Wu made a mistake lol
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I really want to hate on Texas here, but the more I think about it, the more letting counties decide if they want poker seems to make sense. The only problem I’d gave with it is that I’d feel better with a state gambling commission overseeing interfaith and protecting players, and I can’t imagine that would happen with this plan.
 
upNdown said:
I really want to hate on Texas here, but the more I think about it, the more letting counties decide if they want poker seems to make sense. The only problem I’d gave with it is that I’d feel better with a state gambling commission overseeing interfaith and protecting players, and I can’t imagine that would happen with this plan.
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For sure State would be best but by county should give it a much higher chance of passing. Has to be very likely to pass.
 
doublebooyah85 said:
For sure State would be best but by county should give it a much higher chance of passing. Has to be very likely to pass.
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So would each county have its own Commishioner? That would probably work out fine.

71D59AF6-A6E8-40F5-9E6E-7E4E7A43D926.jpeg
 
Guns don't people, wraps do.

Ps this wasn't aimed at guns, I just couldn't resist making a joke.
 
Perthmike said:
Guns don't people, wraps do.

Ps this wasn't aimed at guns, I just couldn't resist making a joke.
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Guns don't kill people, people whose opponents binking the one outer straight flush do. Gosh Mike, get it right!
 
You can have my Texas when you pry it from my cold de—wait, ok, sure, you can have Texas, no problem, just take it, it’s fine, I’ve got Oklahoma.
 
bergs said:
You can have my Texas when you pry it from my cold de—wait, ok, sure, you can have Texas, no problem, just take it, it’s fine, I’ve got Oklahoma.
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But which football team would you love to hate then???
 
bergs said:
Guns don’t kill poker, Texas does.
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Not exactly. Just the asshole politicians that introduce the bills to do so. Probably a California or northeast transplant. :unsure:
Texas Representative Gene Wu (D-Houston) has introduced a new bill in the Texas House of Representatives that would eliminate many of the defenses that these membership poker rooms have used. The bill, House Bill 732, is looking to close the loopholes that these businesses have used to circumvent Texas’ anti-gambling laws. These changes would be significant as it eliminates a defense that these rooms have used in the past to stay open.
 
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Lil Tuna said:
Not exactly. Just the asshole politicians that introduce the bills to do so. Probably a California or northeast transplant. :unsure:
Texas Representative Gene Wu (D-Houston) has introduced a new bill in the Texas House of Representatives that would eliminate many of the defenses that these membership poker rooms have used. The bill, House Bill 732, is looking to close the loopholes that these businesses have used to circumvent Texas’ anti-gambling laws. These changes would be significant as it eliminates a defense that these rooms have used in the past to stay open.
Click to expand...
California and the Northeast have poker rooms all over the place. This anti-poker thing is some sort of weird Texas “gambling is an amoral activity” thing or something...
 

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