***It will remove the limit on the number of tables an establishment may have and significantly lower the asset requirement on bars to apply for a permit to a monthly gross receipt of $7,500.***
Mike, just playing devil\’s advocate here … but $7,500 seems low. I mean I can see why ho-hum bars might want an electronic poker game in their establishments. But if any ole bar could open up a poker room … yeow, is that really a good thing?
Poker players aren\’t big drinkers, we know. Yet every so often a drunk person shows up at a poker room to test their impaired skills. Good fun. But that person, even while drunk, is choosing to go to a poker room, and if he gets his ass handed to him, he understands why. But what\’s going to happen when a drunk guy in a bar stumbles into a poker game … not because he is a player, but simply because he is drunk? If he ends up getting cleaned out on a really really bad beat levied by a slow-rolling asshole … well, that\’s the kinda thing that could lead to someone getting shot! We are in Texas, after all.
Full disclosure: I say this as someone who would love to run a brand-spankin\’ new poker room at The Lodge and/or elsewhere. Suspect this law would be financially beneficial to a guy like me.