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Gambling In Texas |
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Legal forms of gambling in Texas include
the Texas Lottery; parimutuel wagering on
horse and greyhound racing; charitable bingo,
pull-tabs, and raffles; and three Indian
casinos. |
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| Lottery: |
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| The Texas Lottery, begun in 1992,
offers scratch-off and drawing games, including the
multi-jurisdiction Mega Millions and Powerball games. |
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| Charitable gaming |
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| Bingo:
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| Non-profit organizations and other
community groups may operate bingo games and sell
pull-tabs (referred to as "Instant Bingo"), with a
license from the Charitable Bingo Operations Division of
the Texas Lottery Commission. Bingo sessions are limited
to three per week, with a maximum prize value of $750
for a single game. Local referendums, required to allow
bingo, have passed in 226 of the state's 254 counties.
As of 2011, there were 1,227 organizations authorized to
conduct bingo, and they awarded $533 million in prizes. |
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| Raffles: |
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| Qualified organizations can hold up
to two raffles per year with non-cash prizes. Prize
value may not exceed $50,000 (or $250,000 if the prize
is a house), unless the prize is donated to the
organization. |
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| The Legislature in 1971 exempted
charities from the state's anti-lottery statute, but the
act was struck down in 1973 by the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals, which ruled that it violated the state
constitution's requirement for a ban on lotteries.
Voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing
raffles in 1989, and enabling legislation went into
effect at the beginning of 1990. |
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| Parimutuel wagering: |
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| Parimutuel wagering is allowed at
horse and greyhound tracks, overseen by the Texas Racing
Commission. |
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| Class 1 horse tracks can be granted
an unlimited number of racing days. Up to three are
allowed, in the state's three largest metropolitan
areas. They are: Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Retama
Park in Selma, and Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.
Class 2 tracks can be granted a maximum of 60 racing
days per year. Several class 2 tracks are under
development, but none are currently operating. Class 3
licenses are issued to county or nonprofit fairs, and
allow 16 racing days at most. The only current class 3
license is held by the Gillespie County Fair in
Fredericksburg. Class 4 licenses, of which there are
currently none, are issued to county fairs and allow 5
racing days. |
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| The law allows for up to three
greyhound tracks in the coastal counties of Cameron,
Galveston, and Nueces. The licensed tracks are Gulf
Coast Racing in Corpus Christi, Gulf Greyhound Park in
La Marque, and Valley Race Park in Harlingen. Since
2010, with the greyhound industry on the decline, racing
has been held primarily at Gulf Greyhound Park, with the
other two tracks focusing on simulcast betting and
offering few to zero live race days. |
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| Texas first legalized parimutuel
betting in 1933 as a way to raise revenue during the
Great Depression. Four major tracks operated in the
state, until 1937, when betting was banned again at a
special legislative session called by Governor James
Allred. |
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| In 1960, gambler Virgil "Red" Berry
was elected to the Texas House of Representatives on a
pro-parimutuel platform. His efforts made little
headway, and in protest, he proposed in 1969 to split
the state in two, with horse betting legal in South
Texas. Nonbinding statewide referenda to revive
parimutuel betting were defeated in 1962, 1968, 1974,
and 1978, with opposition led largely by Baptist
churches. A poll on the Republican primary ballot in
1982 found majority support for betting. Finally, in
1987, Texas voters approved a referendum legalizing
parimutuel wagering again and creating the Texas Racing
Commission, with a local election required in any county
to allow a track. Simulcast wagering at tracks was
legalized in 1991. |
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Indian gaming: |
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| Eight-liners: |
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| "Game rooms" throughout the state
feature slot machine-like devices commonly called
"eight-liners". The machines are legal if they offer
only non-cash prizes valued at less than $5, but law
enforcement officials say that illegal cash payouts are
near universal. Enforcement of existing laws regarding
the machines has been inconsistent, and legislative
efforts to ban them have failed. In response to past
frustrations, in April 2013 state and federal police
launched Operation Bishop to crack-down on the illegal
"eight-liner" operations in the Brownsville area. |
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Eight-liners began to proliferate following passage
of the 1993 "fuzzy animal law", which was intended to
clarify that amusement games that award low-value prizes
or tickets were legal. |
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Casino cruises: |
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Gambling boats have operated at times out of Texas
ports, taking passengers on one-day "cruises to nowhere"
in international waters, where there are no gambling
laws. |
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The casino cruise industry developed in other states
in the early 1980s, but was a latecomer to Texas because
of a state law prohibiting the docking of ships with
gambling equipment unless they first stopped at a
foreign port of call. The first such operation in the
state was Le Mistral, which began sailing out of Port
Isabel in 1988, nominally to the Mexican village of
Mezquital, though it typically did not approach within a
mile of the port. Le Mistral was closed by bankruptcy in
1992. |
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Galveston officials pushed for a repeal of the
foreign port of call requirement, succeeding in 1989.
Two casino ships, the Pride of Mississippi and the
Europa Jet, began operations out of the Port of
Galveston later that year. The Europa Jet ran into
financial problems and left for Mississippi in September
1990. Another boat, the Sea Palace, began offering
cruises out of the Port of Freeport in January 1991, but
both it and the Pride closed for business in April,
after federal prosecutors said they would enforce a 1948
law requiring gambling ships to visit a foreign port or
sail for at least 24 hours. |
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Casino cruises returned to Galveston in November 1993
with the Star of Texas, which gained the blessing of the
U.S. attorney's office by devoting less than half of its
space to casinos, and emphasizing non-gaming activities.
The business failed in November 1994, and the ship was
moved to Miami. |
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Two new gambling boat ventures began in the
Brownsville area in the fall of 1999: Casino Del Mar on
the Island Dawn, sailing out of Port Isabel; and Casino
Padre on the Entertainer, out of South Padre Island.
Casino Del Mar failed in January 2000, but then moved to
Port Aransas under new management as the Texas Treasure.
Casino Padre ceased operations in November 2000. |
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Casino cruises returned to Galveston in November 1993
with the Star of Texas, which gained the blessing of the
U.S. attorney's office by devoting less than half of its
space to casinos, and emphasizing non-gaming
activities.[64] The business failed in November 1994,
and the ship was moved to Miami. |
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Two new gambling boat ventures began in the
Brownsville area in the fall of 1999: Casino Del Mar on
the Island Dawn, sailing out of Port Isabel; and Casino
Padre on the Entertainer, out of South Padre Island.
Casino Del Mar failed in January 2000, but then moved to
Port Aransas under new management as the Texas Treasure.
Casino Padre ceased operations in November 2000. |
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In 2001, three casino boats were launched along the
upper Texas coast. The Talisman, out of Galveston, set
off in April, but lasted only a month. The Surfside
Princess began excursions from Freeport in June, but in
October was seized by its owner for failure to pay
charter fees. The operators of the Port Aransas boat
expanded to Freeport in November with the Texas Treasure
II. It lasted until February 2002, when it was moved to
Port Aransas on a temporary basis to substitute for the
under-repair Texas Treasure; instead of returning to
Freeport, it was then moved to Palm Beach, Florida. |
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The first Texas Treasure moved to Palm Beach in
October 2002, replacing its sister ship; for lack of
business, it returned to Port Aransas a year later. It
continued sailing until May 2008, when it closed for
routine maintenance; after a legal dispute between its
operator and its owner, it never returned to service.
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A new gambling boat, the Aransas Queen Casino, began
sailing out of Corpus Christi in May 2015. It moved to
Galveston in April 2017 and became the Jacks or Better
Casino. |
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