With the 89th Texas legislative session set to begin on Monday, many are wondering if this will be the year that casino gambling will finally get a win in Austin? One expert believes, it's a safe bet.
"We've seen legislation for casino's specifically every session since the 73rd legislature, that was in 1993" said Derek Cohen, Chief Research Officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
And so while it's not a question of whether or not lawmakers will roll the dice again, two questions that do remain: How long can Texas hold out on casino gambling? And how much money is Texas losing, to other states that do allow it?
"If we were to allow casino gambling, I estimate that the actual revenue that we'd take in as a state would be about $834 million dollars, we're talking about real money" Cohen told KTRH, "The issue is, where they start talking about what the money is going for."
That is the multi-million dollar question, and whether or not this session, Texas lawmakers are ready to play along.
Photo: Duncan Nicholls and Simon Webb / OJO Images / Getty Images