Precedence Brewing in Texas?

A Texas woman won $82,789 in October playing slots at on online casino. A few weeks ago she happily mulled plans of paying off debts and making investments. Now she's wondering what went wrong as her fate lies in the hands of the state's attorney general.

Meta Williamson, a high school Spanish teacher in San Angelo, Texas, won the prize playing "Cash Splash," a progressive cyber slot machine, at River Belle Internet Casino. "The Cash Splash has really come to me at a most needed time," explained the elated high school Spanish teacher. "What a blessing!"

The tide turned rather quickly, however, when a reporter from the Wall Street Journal picked up on the story, did some research and wrote an article suggesting that Williamson's "good fortune" was actually a violation of Texas law. Specifically, the reporter was referring to an opinion (citing Texas Penal Code Chapter 47) submitted in 1995 by Attorney General Dan Morales.

The WSJ story, printed on October 28, abruptly turned Williamson's dream-come-true into a nightmare. She's been under the microscope of reporters—not to mention her neighbors, her students and authorities—since it was published and is even worried that she could lose her job. The San Angelo Standard Times reported that she might have to forfeit the prize, and according to Tom Green County Attorney Tom Goff, the matter has been turned over to the attorney general's office.

So now it's up to Dan Morales. If he wishes to flex his executive muscle, he can nab some spotlight by making a case of Williamson and pledging to do his part in stomping an industry that University of Illinois Professor John Kindt has dubbed "the crack cocaine of creating new pathological gamblers."

Will Morales join the ranks of Missouri AG Jay Nixon's, who's already taken two online gambling operations to court? Or will he run a rake through Chapter 47 and determine that it doesn't clearly deem Internet gambling illegal?

Regardless of the outcome, the fiasco is a tough lesson for Williamson. It's also a reminder that online gambling will continue to be scrutinized and criminalized in the U.S. and an encouragement for online casino and sportsbook operators to do their business elsewhere.