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Texas casino proposal presented

TEXAS – As reported by the American Statesman: "As the clock runs out this legislative session on the possibility of expanding gambling in Texas, two American Indian tribes are asking the House today to allow them to reopen their casinos that the state shuttered five years ago.

"In 2002, then-Attorney General John Cornyn won in federal court the right to close the Tigua tribe's Speaking Rock Casino in El Paso and the Alabama-Coushattas' gaming site in Livingston in Southeast Texas.

"The tribes say closing the casinos hurt them economically, forcing them to curtail stipends to tribal members, eliminate college scholarships or limit programs for the elderly.

"House Bill 10, which is being debated today, will be the first gambling bill, perhaps the only one, to make it to a floor vote this session, which ends May 28.

"The measure would not legalize gambling on the tribal lands. Instead, it would give tribal members a defense to criminal prosecution, a tactic that would require only a simple majority, not the two-thirds vote necessary to amend the state constitution…"

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