Posted by Let Texans Decide
Feb 05, 2013
Let Texans Decide spokesman John Montford was featured in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article this weekend. The piece points out how many Texans visit Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico casinos and spend billions there each year – billions that should stay in Texas.
We’ve posted some highlights of the article below, and you can click here to read the full post.
- But if [Nona Dean of Denton] had the chance to gamble at a casino in Texas, where tax dollars could go to funding state needs such as education, she’d do it in a heartbeat, she said. “Our money would stay in Texas,” she said. She and many other Texans drive to neighboring states — Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico — and spend billions of dollars a year playing machines and tables and dabbling in off-track betting.
- Dozens of chambers of commerce, including Arlington’s, and other groups have thrown their support behind giving voters a chance to decide whether to bring casinos to this state.
- Years ago, many North Texans would drive to Shreveport to take their chances at casinos. But as casinos in Oklahoma have been built in recent years, many North Texans have headed there, preferring the shorter drive.
- WinStar has grown through the years, adding more square footage to its casino, not to mention a spa, shops, an inn, a 27-hole golf course, a variety of eateries and a 2,500-seat Global Events Center, which has recently presented performers including Matchbox 20 and Diana Ross. When looking at ongoing expansion and construction at the casino recently, Dean, of Denton, just smiled. “Texans are building this,” she said with a shrug.
