TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER
TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER
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Gambling advocates not cashing out |
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GALVESTON —
At a meeting last week, county commissioners Eddie Janek and Ken Clark
politely disagreed over the chances that gambling would return to Galveston
County, Texas. It took a few seconds for someone in the audience to lob in the obvious joke: “Care to wager on it?” Maybe gambling is part of human nature. That would explain why talk of bringing it back after a 47-year absence refuses to die in Galveston. State legislators looking for new revenue streams for public schools last week cut from a bill a proposal to open the state to video games of chance. The original bill would have limited the machines to the state’s eight horse and dog tracks, including Gulf Greyhound Park in La Marque. Developer Tilman Fertitta said opening a casino in nearby La Marque would kill the island’s tourism industry. State Rep. Craig Eiland, who represents Galveston, sought an amendment that would allow slots on the island. The gambling language ended up not making the cut in the House. But senators this week will debate their own version of the school finance bill, and state Sen. Kyle Janek said gambling would be among the possible revenue sources. Gambling proponents say it would provide much needed revenue for public schools and boost tourism and jobs. Texans already gamble on the lottery and races, but the money they lose at out-of-state casinos provides no benefit here, supporters say. Opponents say gambling would only enrich a few fat cats, sends the wrong message to children and would foster a litany of social ills, from crime, gambling addiction and middle-class flight. The Good Old Days R.S. Maceo wistfully remembers the days when Texas was full of places where people could bet on cards, dice or feed the slots. Days when such stars as Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra played shows on the island, downtown was full of bustle and businesses and Las Vegas was an unknown speck in the desert. “It was a 24-hour town then,” Maceo said. “Nobody needed a job in Galveston.” Maceo, 85, is the nephew of Sam and Rose Maceo, who owned several gambling clubs in the county. Maceo was a pit boss at one, the Balinese Room, and ran the Cedar Oaks Club in Dickinson. Another, the Turf Club, cashed $1 million in paychecks from Todd Shipyard and the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1946, for a fee of 10 cents a check. The Maceos earned a reputation for protecting the high rollers and keeping island residents with little luck and even less money from losing their shirts. “If we knew they couldn’t afford to gamble, they couldn’t play Texas Holdem poker,” he said, explaining gamblers needed to be members of the clubs, and membership was controlled. “In those days you had to belong to a club just to buy a drink.” Gambling was illegal but the law was not enforced, at least not with any vigor. Maceo said they always knew when the Texas Rangers were about to visit (and no, the band at the Balinese never had to provide warning by striking up “The Eyes of Texas”), although he declined to say who tipped them off. The Maceos would close off the casino, and the authorities would look around the restaurants, have a cup of coffee and be on their way. That changed on June 7, 1957, when the Rangers shut the clubs down after years of complaints from gambling foes. It signaled the end of “wide open” gambling in the city. A city government that had turned a blind eye to gambling began taking literal swings at it in the public eye. Then police chief Willie Burns picked up a sledgehammer and, without taking the cigar out of his mouth, helped other law enforcement officials smash slot machines. What the Rangers and police smashed was junk that had been kept in storage and cannibalized for parts, Maceo said. “All the good stuff went to Vegas,” he said. Gambling On The Island’s Future Maceo said he has no doubt that bringing back casinos would return some of Galveston’s shine. “Hell yes, I think they should bring it back,” he said. “It would be good for Galveston.” Sitting at a table outside Island Spice and Tea, the business he started after gambling dried up, Maceo points to cracks in the sidewalk and the stillness on Market Street. “You didn’t see this,” he said. “It’s sad what you saw then and then what you see today. I never thought Galveston would be in this shape.” Not everyone sees gambling here as such a sure bet. Harris “Shrub” Kempner, an island resident and anti-gambling activist, said gambling and family-friendly tourism — toward which Galveston has focused most of its efforts over at least the past decade — are mutually exclusive. Casinos also would dash the city’s efforts to lure middle-income residents and UTMB’s ability to recruit and retain top medical and research talent, he said. Kempner doesn’t distinguish between the limited gambling proposed and the sprawling casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. He said gambling interests, once they get their feet in the door, are able to take control of their communities through legal and illegal political contributions. “Once you’re not a virgin, it’s very hard to defend your virtue,” he said. City residents said no to a return of casino gambling in three straw votes in 1984, 1987 and 1988. Voters later passed a charter amendment that prohibited any more elections on casino gaming until it was legalized by the state. “The city doesn’t need them,” Kempner said. “Even in the ’80s, we turned it down at a time we were down. It’s hard to believe that if we turned them down in the ’80s, we need them now.” Good For Businesses No one questions that casinos bring money and tourists. There is plenty of disagreement over whether their in-house restaurants and shops suck up any benefit to existing establishments. Paulie Gaido, whose family owns the legendary Gaido’s Seafood Restaurant, said his father, Mike, admired the Maceos and their commitment to minimizing any negative effects from their casinos. Still, coexistence was difficult. “He said it was extremely difficult to compete with them because basically they could underprice a seafood dinner for any group and recoup what they might have charged by having people after dinner lose it at the poker tables,” Gaido said. “Having said that, he felt that gambling brought a lot of people to Galveston with a lot of money to spend, and they couldn’t spend it all at the establishments owned by the Maceos.” R.S. Maceo recites a list of stores that the family did not own that were unable to stay open when gambling’s heyday was over. His son, Ronnie, recalls downtown as busy and vibrant in his youth. At one nighttime Christmas parade his hands got cold, so his parents ducked into one of the many stores and bought him some gloves — an incident he said illustrates the difference between now and then. “The very idea it would be detrimental to the island is absurd,” said A.R. “Babe” Schwartz, a former state senator and lobbyist. “If you listen to Shrub, none of those people living in Las Vegas have a medical center or a university or a symphony. “They’re just poor folks in the dirt out there waiting for people to drop their money in a slot machine.” In truth, Las Vegas consistently had some of the highest growth rates in the country and all the ingredients of a world-class city, Schwartz said. “If there is something they want and don’t have, they can go buy it,” he said. Kempner said Atlantic City was the more appropriate peer city. Atlantic City, where gambling has been allowed since 1978, is built on a small peninsula so residents can’t escape the shadow of the casinos without leaving town. Handicapping The Chances Although he believes the island would prosper with Texas Holdem casino gambling, Schwartz said he doesn’t believe it will ever happen. And that would be fine with Kempner. The Senate begins its discussions Tuesday. Kyle Janek, who represents Galveston, said senate leaders over the weekend would prepare a bill with all possible revenue sources, which would be pared down during debate. Gambling will probably be included, at least initially. “The conventional wisdom is it is always better to make a bill exhaustive and take things out,” he said. The process will be watched by up to 246 lobbyists who have registered with the state to work on gambling issues this year. Some have been retained by out-of-state gambling interests to squelch competition in Texas. Others represent the track owners, while still others argue on behalf of such large gaming interests as Harrah’s that want a shot at a license. To some, limiting the machines to the racetracks is a way to contain the spread of gambling and give hesitant legislators a way to explain their support to temperate constituents. Others say it’s a giveaway worth up to $4 billion, the amount a Maryland investment banker who studies the gambling business testified the state could realize if a limited number of licenses were sold to the highest bidders. Eiland said that fact and the fact that supporters proposed naming the sites in the state constitution — meaning any proposed future sites would face a difficult legislative path and a statewide vote — prompted him to seek the Galveston amendment to the bill. It would otherwise be too easy for track owners or out-of-state interests to kill their future competitors before they were born, Eiland contends. “Those interests will be up there every session from now on to kill the legislation trying to get in on their business,” he said. Eiland said his concern over outside tampering also had him reserving judgment on whether there should be a local election on casino gambling. Kyle Janek said he favored a local vote on the issue and opposed putting the locations in the constitution, arguing that doing so would make it very difficult to make adjustments. For instance, lawmakers may chose to strip licenses from tracks that either stop running races or don’t put out the video machines. “We need the constitution to cover the big picture and have to allow the lawmakers to handle the future,” he said. |
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