In a letter distributed to Texas lawmakers today, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform again threw his support behind gaming as an alternative to tax increases next session.

After citing all the federal tax increases likely to come down the pike next year, Norquist wrote, “The benefits of incorporating the gaming industry into the Texas economic portfolio are too significant to ignore.  Not only would it be preferable to job-killing tax increases, it would actually lead to job creation.”

Norquist’s complete letter can be found here.

Copyright January 12, 2012, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved

By Kenneth Lovett / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

ALBANY — It’s a winner!

Aqueduct’s racino brought in more money in the two short months since it opened at the Queens racetrack than five upstate outfits each banked all last year, the Daily News has learned.

The virtual casino netted nearly $90 million in revenue between Oct. 28 and Dec. 31, according to data provided to The News by the state Lottery division.

Of the eight other racinos operating in New York, only those in Yonkers, Saratoga and the Finger Lakes did better — but they were open all year long.

“Their opening numbers are just really impressive,” an admiring official from a competing racino said of Aqueduct.

“I’m sure some of that is the curiosity and wow factor.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver noted that Aqueduct has many more video slots and table games than the state’s other racinos and benefits from the city’s 8.3 million population.

“The upstate facilities have a more limited market,” Silver said.

Even so, every racino showed an increase last year.

In all, the combined racino revenue was $1.26 billion, up 15.8% from 2010.

The upswing comes as Gov. Cuomo pushes a constitutional amendment to legalize full-blown casino gambling in New York.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/aqueduct-bet-pays-big-time-90-million-2-months-article-1.1003139#ixzz1jMDyDc3D

By Rob Moritz

By Howard Stutz

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana — MGM Resorts International bought its way into the Louisiana gaming market Thursday through a joint venture with Las Vegas-based Creative Casinos to develop and operate a project in Lake Charles.

The company’s real targets, however, are Houston and other communities in customer-rich Texas.

Analysts said running the planned 400-room Mojito Pointe hotel-casino in Lake Charles, roughly 145 miles east of Houston and its roughly 6 million residents, gives MGM Resorts a foothold near an important feeder market to Las Vegas and an edge in attracting new visitors to its 10 Strip resorts.

Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Andrew Zarnett estimated that 50 percent of visitors from Southern states to Las Vegas come from Texas.

Union Gaming Group principal Bill Lerner said Mojito Pointe could open the Lake Charles market to other Texas cities, such as Austin and San Antonio, which would eventually benefit MGM Resorts.

“(The partnership) becomes quite attractive in our view,” Lerner said.

Financial terms of the deal between MGM Resorts and Creative, which is privately owned by longtime gaming executive Dan Lee, were not revealed.

According to a joint statement, MGM Resorts gains an undisclosed ownership stake and would manage Mojito Pointe, which will be designed and developed by Creative. The agreement will place Mojito Pointe into MGM Resort’s M Life customer loyalty program. Also, Mojito Pointe would have access to MGM Resort’s database of customers worldwide.

MGM Resorts now operates two hotel-casinos in the south, Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in the Gulf Coast community of Biloxi, Miss., and the Gold Strike Casino ResortTunica in northern Mississippi, which attracts customers from nearby Memphis, Tenn.

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By Ray Poirier

As expected, the Massachusetts Senate has approved, 24-14, a bill that would authorize the licensing of three casinos and one racino.

This follows the House approval of a similar bill. Because of what was described as minor differences in the two bills, a conference committee will be established to iron out the differences.

It is expected to be on Gov. Deval Patrick’s desk soon. Patrick has expressed his approval of the gambling expansion.

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By Tim Eaton

Texas came a little closer tonight to expanded gambling, but it doesn’t look like casinos will be on the table.

In a Friday night meeting, a House committee voted out a measure to allow slot machines at racetracks and Indian reservations.

But the House’s Licensing and Administrative Procedures committee — chaired by Rep. Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton, R-Mauriceville — agreed to a joint resolution that strips out full-casino gambling.

“We just didn’t know if we had the votes for it,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said that some House members indicated that they would consider voting for a bill that would only allow slots at tracks and Indian reservations.

But the House won’t even get to consider the measure unless Hamilton thinks he’s got the votes to pass it. And as of Friday, he said that is close but isn’t quite there.

In March, Hamilton had supported an all-encompassing bill that could have led to seven new Las Vegas-style casinos, slot machines at 13 horse and dog tracks across the state, slots at a few Indian reservations and slots at bingo halls across Texas.

But the measure the committee voted out tonight, House Joint Resolution 111, didn’t include casinos or bingo halls.

Mike Lavigne, a spokesman for Win for Texas, a group that backs slots at tracks, said in a statement: “We are excited to see the process moving along. This is a big step towards creating over 75,000 new jobs and keeping billions of dollars here in Texas when we need it most. Giving Texans the chance to vote on this proposal is the smart thing to do.”

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By Morgan Smith and Ben Philpott

Attention, gamblers. A Texas House committee surprised the casino lobby Friday night when it voted out legislation that would allow video lottery terminals — slot machines — at state racetracks and Indian reservations. The casinos were left behind.

Casino interests wanted any legislation approved by the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee to also allow destination casinos in major cities and on the state’s barrier islands.

Rep. Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton, R-Mauriceville, said he still doesn’t have the 100 votes required in the House to advance the constitutional amendment his committee approved.

Time is short. The legislative session ends on Memorial Day. And next week, a joint House-Senate committee trying to reconcile their two versions of the budget will convene. They’re looking for money, and the gaming interests are hoping this is their chance.

Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, has said he won’t move on any gaming bill until and unless the House passes one. With that still in doubt, nothing’s moving in the Senate right now.

The bill approved by the committee includes a constitutional amendment and the legislation putting it into effect if it passes. Those bills, by Rep. Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, would allow VLTs at dog and horse tracks and on reservations and would raise $548.2 million for the next budget.

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By James Ridgway, Jr.

The Texas Racing Commission concluded in their 2011 “Current State of Horse and Greyhound Racing” that Texas racetracks experienced another year of decline.

In the five years preceding 2010, TRC reported that attendance dropped 12 percent, money wagered declined 23 percent, live racing dropped from 1,228 in 2005 to 578 in 2009, and available purse revenue across the state decreased.

“The Texas racing industry has declined tremendously relative to neighboring states. Comparing the purse revenue paid to Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse owners in Louisiana with the purse dollars paid to Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse owners in Texas underscores the depth to which Texas has fallen.

“In 2009, Louisiana purses for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses amounted to $106 million, whereas purses paid to the owners of both major breeds in Texas amounted to $30million. The difference is $76 million,” from TRC’s Industry Advisory Group Report and Recommendations.

New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana have legalized slot machine gambling within their pari-mutuel race facilities. The TRC study purported Texas racetracks are operating at a competitive disadvantage.

At the local level, Pct. 2 Commissioner Craig Doyal said slot machine gaming has not been a subject of overt interest within commissioners’ court in Montgomery County.

“At this point, not having heard pros or cons, I couldn’t say how I would vote (on slot machine gaming). It’s one of those areas, for or against, we haven’t heard much about,” Doyal said. “If Austin opted to allow local options, it would definitely be something I would consider further.”

Doyal said a local option would allow county residents to vote on slot machine gaming as a community.

Andrea Young, president of Sam Houston Race Park, in earlier coverage, said Texans are losing a sizable chuck of taxable-dollars.

“At the tune of 30 percent tax rates on gaming, this is money Texas is losing to neighboring states,” Young said. “Texas is already gaming legally on horse tracks and lottery tickets. Slot machine entertainment on our facilities should be no different.”

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SAN ANGELO, Texas — Patsy Johnson, Sonora

In regard the editorial in the April 27 Standard-Times, “Let voters make gaming decision:”

It’s really none of Sen. Robert Duncan’s and Rep. Drew Darby’s business whether Texans gamble. They should look at the money going out of Texas to our neighboring states.

Wendover, Nev., sends jets to take Texans from San Angelo, Midland, Abilene etc. The last two times we left for Wendover from San Angelo there were 195 people at $169 each, at least. That’s $32,955 going to those three casinos in Wendover.

There also are flights out of San Angelo to Lofland, Nev., and they charge more than Wendover.

We went to Wendover April 13 from San Angelo and there were flights the same week from the cities I mentioned.

Legislators should get this on the ballot instead of trying to tell us what we should or shouldn’t do.

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By Ed Sterling

AUSTIN – Big bills continue to rumble around the state Capitol with less than a month remaining until May 30, the last day of the regular 82nd session of the Texas Legislature.

The full House and the Senate Finance Committee have passed versions of the state budget, but last week there was not enough collective will in the Senate to bring the matter up for floor debate: too much disagreement on the particulars. We’ll have to wait a little longer to see a state budget both houses consider fit for delivery to the governor.

In their current forms, the House version cuts spending by $23 billion while the Senate Finance Committee’s version, which pulls $3 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund, cuts $17 billion.

Meanwhile, the Senate approved SB 1811 by Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, to pump $4 billion in non-tax revenue into the 2012-2013 state budget. Duncan’s bill would make use of accounting strategies, such as moving the state’s final payment of the fiscal year to the Permanent School Fund (more than $2 billion) from August into September, the first month of fiscal year 2011-2012.

It would also move up the collection of the state’s franchise tax a month early in 2013 to bring in about $800 million, the Senate Media Office reported.

Another key piece of budget legislation was passed by the Senate: SB 23 by Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. Nelson’s bill would save about a half billion dollars in health care costs over the next biennium by moving Medicaid prescriptions into managed care and increasing managed care for Medicaid patients in South Texas.

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