Casino gambling has long been a contentious issue in Texas. On the one hand, state mitigators and religious groups oppose the opening of new casinos and have shut down old ones. On the other, fans of gambling put pari-mutuel wagering on the ballet for decades in an effort to bring it back to legal status. Currently, the attitude of state law to gambling is hostile. The chances of state based online casinos managing to get legal recognition in Texas are remote at this time.. This has driven Texas residents to the convenience of Texas online casino games legally offered through licensed Texas online casinos.
There are several factors at play. First of all, the United States in general is wary of online gambling- few states have out-and-out legal online casino ownership permitted explicitly by state law. High-profile legal cases have led to bans, and then reversals, on online poker and similar attractions. The basic position of much of the country concerning online gambling is unfriendly. Of course, many Americans and Texans still gamble online, and it is not illegal to do so. Yet the opposition means that officially sanctioned online casinos run from within the United States are still not available in most of the USA. .
On top of that, Texas specifically has a hostile legal environment for all kinds of gambling. With the way it suppressed racetrack betting and has used legal action to close down casinos, it is clear that whatever the opinion of the Texan public, the Texas state government is not welcoming towards gambling. Thus, state based online casinos in Texas face an uphill battle in terms of both federal and state law. You can learn more about the state’s laws for this type of entertainment from our page covering Texas gambling laws. Nothing stops Texans from playing online casinos that are hosted and operated by owners outside the United States, but, at least for now, there is no local option. Not even an established casino can create an online version of the games it runs in its physical location in order to offer Texas online slots, blackjack or roulette.
Texas stands to gain a significant amount of tax revenue from regulating online casinos. They don’t have the setup costs of land casinos and regulators don’t need to make decisions about where to locate them in the community. Furthermore, the fact that there are so many online casinos means that when the state government levies a tax on them, they can collect a large amount of revenue even if the tax rate is relatively low. The potential benefits to the state are so significant and yet hosting an online casino is still illegal. That is a sign of just how strong the opposition to online gambling is among the Texas political establishment.
From the fact that the history of gambling in Texas has been a story of repeated outlawing of categories of gambling, along with occasional, grudging licensing, it is easy to conclude that the odds of a local online casino opening up in Texas are slim. It is simply too unfriendly a state to make that an option, in a country which is generally not hospitable to online gambling in the first place. Do not expect to see online casinos getting Texas state licenses in the foreseeable future. The odds are simply stacked against them.