Casino gambling in Texas is deader than a doornail

Maybe Miriam Adelson et al will learn that.

There's a great piece in the Monthly about how Tim Dunn punked Miriam Adelson on casino gambling. Can't they share a red heifer, spotless and without blemish, and make it all up? In reality, as I've said before, Danny Goeb will NEVER see a casino bill in the Texas Senate that he likes, and he'll surely get re-elected next year, which means Adelson will have to wait until at least the 2031 Lege to win this thing. 

So this?

There is little doubt about what Sands wants. It sold its last U.S. property in 2022. Its six casinos are all in Asia. Texas is the company’s path back home. In 2020, Abboud told a conference that the state was “the biggest plum still waiting” to be plucked “in the history of hospitality and gaming.” Worth an estimated $32 billion, Adelson is betting that limitless cash can overcome any opposition. It’s a long game, with immense profits as the reward, one that her most ardent enemies admit may pay off someday.

Ain't gonna happen for years to come. Indeed, the story goes on to say that the Sands/Adelman overkill effort may have driven the cause backward.

That said, the piece is also good for noting that, contra Goeb and Dunn, gambling was here in Tex-ass long ago:

Twenty miles southwest of Irving, a citadel of vice stands atop one of the highest points in Arlington. In the 1930s and ’40s, Top O’Hill Terrace served as an illegal home for gambling, booze, and prostitution—“Vegas before Vegas,” some have called it. Its patrons were among the most famous celebrities and businesspeople of the day: Mae West, Howard Hughes, oilman H. L. Hunt, and even Bonnie and Clyde. High stakes were leavened by fine entertainment: Ginger Rogers, Benny Goodman, and Ruth Laird’s Texas Rockets all performed at the club.

Interestingly, the piece does not mention the glory days of Jacksboro Highway, which I believe had gambling along with whores and the mob, probably because nobody that famous ever went there.

Meanwhile, if Adelson and son-in-law Patrick Dumont pull out, can they sell the Mavericks, too?