TEXAS Hold'em needs to be legal in TEXAS

[corndog]

Just found the live stream for the Committee on Licensing & Administrative Procedures:

http://www.house.state.tx.us/fx/av/l...livecmte40.ram

I just turned it on. They are talking about poker runs right now, which I think are on the same bill.

edit: n/m. They were on bill 653, which is a bill dealing specifically with poker runs.

[brimelian]

I have spent my entire career working around the Texas Legislative process. What happened to Menendez' bill yesterday is standard, but the sad fact of the matter is that his legislation has virtually no chance of becoming law this year.

The legislative session ends on May 28th, and there are a number of procedural deadlines in the last month of the session designed to kill bills that aren't moving. The House already has a tremendous backlog of bills that need to be heard before these deadlines start to apply, so the reality is that all house bills need to get out of committee by mid-April to have any chance of making it through the entire process.

Based on what I have heard, Menendez has the votes to get his bill out of committee. However, he probably doesn't have the votes to get it out of the full house. Even if he did have the votes, the bill would have to be scheduled for floor consideration by the House Calendars committee. Given the political composition of that committee, it is unlikely his bill will ever make it back to the house floor.

The most likely scenario is this: Menendez gets his bill out of committee, but it dies in Calendars and never makes it to the floor.

I know this sounds discouraging, but consider this: similar bills have never made it out of committee in past sessions. If Menendez can get this bill out of committee this year, he will have accomplished something that has never been done before. That doesn't help us now...but it will give the bill a fighting chance in the 2009 legislative session.

[Qoheleth]

That's too bad. Anything ordinary people can do to encourage this?

On a side note, any thoughts on why the $million dollar net worth provision?

[brimelian]

[ QUOTE ]
That's too bad. Anything ordinary people can do to encourage this?

On a side note, any thoughts on why the $million dollar net worth provision?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the advice that others have already given is worthwhile, re: call and write your representatives as well as the committee members. For better or worse, getting new laws passed in Texas is often an iterative process. Repetition is good, and familiarity is even better. Even though the bill may die this session, all those calls and letters will be remembered next session when the bill is heard again. The concept won't be alien to the members who are still around next session. Instead of a member asking "Why on earth would we want to regulate poker?", they will think, "Oh yea, this is the bill that got out of committee and died in Calendars last session. I heard good things about that bill from my constituents last time...I hope it moves."

The wheels of progress grind *very* slowly in Texas politics, but they still move. :-)

As for the $1 million threshold, I'm guessing that is in there so that the state will only have to regulate larger nightclubs, restaurants, and other commercial operations. Having to regulate smaller entities would be an administrative and logistical nightmare and cost more than what the licensing fees would bring in.

If a bill results in a net cost to the state, it is usually dead in the water. I'm certain Menendez structured the bill in this way so it would result in a net revenue gain to the state...otherwise, the committee would have never heard it.

[LinusKS]

Thanks. I was kinda hoping there was something else, but if that's it, that's it.

One nice thing that came out of it is I'd forgotten what a beautiful building the Capital is. And I guess it's impressive we've got legislators working until ten pm - I had no idea.