{"id":54903,"date":"2023-05-14T18:08:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T18:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=54903"},"modified":"2023-05-14T18:08:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-14T18:08:43","slug":"sports-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=54903","title":{"rendered":"No to gambling!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>No doubt I am likely in a distinct minority, but I happen to be glad to know that sports betting isn&#8217;t coming to Texas &#8230; at least not anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>A bill that would have expanded gambling has failed to clear the Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>One of the bill&#8217;s sponsors is state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from nearby Plano, who said this, according to the Texas Tribune:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI look forward to building on our success with Senator (Lois) Kolkhorst and our Senate colleagues to get this legislation across the finish line and allow the voters a voice in whether we have a legal, regulated sports betting market in Texas,\u201d Leach said in a statement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Just to be clear, I worked for a newspaper that in 1991 opposed the establishment of the Texas lottery. We were a lonely voice in opposition, as the measure passed overwhelmingly.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I need to acknowledge that I recently stuffed a $20 bill into a Nevada slot machine and walked away with a small jackpot.<\/p>\n<p>Do I want the temptation to come to Texas? No!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2023\/05\/12\/casinos-texas-legislature-house\/\">Effort to allow casinos falls short in Texas House | The Texas Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I find it offensive that the gambling industry doesn&#8217;t even use the term &#8220;gambling&#8221; to describe the activity it is promoting. They euphemistically call it &#8220;gaming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Listen up, folks! It&#8217;s gambling! Any time one <em>gambles<\/em> on winning a big jackpot by throwing away money for the once-in-a-zillion chance of winning big is, um, taking a chance. Isn&#8217;t that gambling?<\/p>\n<p>No need to create a &#8220;destination resort&#8221; that entices people to throw their money away.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"mailto:johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com\">johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No doubt I am likely in a distinct minority, but I happen to be glad to know that sports betting isn&#8217;t coming to Texas &#8230; at least not anytime soon. A bill that would have expanded gambling has failed to clear the Legislature. One of the bill&#8217;s sponsors is state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=54903\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">No to gambling!<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1844,10186,8665,10187,4653],"class_list":["post-54903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-gambling","tag-gaming","tag-jeff-leach","tag-slot-machines","tag-texas-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54903"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54905,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54903\/revisions\/54905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}