Gambling meets its match in Senate but still has an open line in House

May 12, 2003

Gambling meets its match in Senate
but still has an open line in House
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___AUSTIN--Gambling opponents may have hit the jackpot in the Texas Senate, but they wondered aloud if their luck would hold out in the House of Representatives.
___Efforts to attach gambling expansion amendments to a Texas Lottery bill were defeated in the Senate May 7 after the former lieutenant governor threatened a filibuster.
___"Now the focus moves to the House," said Suzii Paynter, citizenship and public policy director for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.
___She noted that the House version of the Lottery Commission sunset bill, reauthorizing the state agency f

Gambling opponents scored a key victory in the Texas Senate thanks largely to a threatened filibuster and a point of order raised by Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant.

or the next 12 years, includes provisions allowing Texas to join multi-state lottery games and legalizing video lottery terminals in certain venues.
___She urged Texas Baptists and other concerned citizens to contact state representatives, particularly members of the House Ways and Means Committee, to voice opposition to any measures expanding gambling in Texas.
___Committee members are Ron Wilson, D- Houston; Brian McCall, R-Plano; Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie; Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville; Jim Keffer, R-Eastland; Vilma Luna, D-Corpus Christi; Ken Paxton, R-Frisco; Allan Ritter, D-Nederland; and Beverly Wooley, R-Houston.
___Gambling opponents scored a key victory in the Texas Senate thanks largely to a threatened filibuster and a point of order raised by Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant.
___Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, gave up on amendments to the Lottery sunset bill that would have legalized video gambling machines at horse and dog racetracks after Ratliff, the former lieutenant governor, announced he was prepared to speak all night against any gambling expansion proposal.
___Ratliff also used a parliamentary rule to block an amendment that would have allowed video gambling on Indian reservations in Texas.
___"The man is a leader, and he leads from conviction," Paynter said.
___In the only record vote in the Senate on this issue, a gambling expansion measured was defeated 16 to 12. Paynter credited that vote to citizen reaction in recent days.
___"We know many Texas Baptists and others have contacted their legislators in the last two weeks with petitions, letters and phone calls," she said. "Lawmakers listened to the voices of their constituents."
___In a related matter, the San Antonio Express-News reported that Gov. Rick Perry, who in March indicated he was open to gambling expansion if it was attached to the Lottery Commission sunset bill, has returned to his "no gambling expansion" pledge.
___The paper quoted a representative of the governor's office as saying Perry would favor the legalization of video lottery terminals only if voters approved a constitutional amendment authorizing them.
___"He could not support sunset legislation with a VLT provision," spokeswoman Kathy Walt told the newspaper.
___

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