Dallas City Councilman Chad West told 12NewsNow’s Inside Texas Politics that the city should take proactive steps to accommodate casinos, citing possible opportunities for additional tax revenue and job creation if gambling is legalized in Texas.
“I think it’s important for us to decide if we, as a city, want to welcome it into the city,” West said. “The state is going to make the decision for us if it’s legal or not. If we’re sitting around on our hands, once it becomes legalized, it’s malpractice for us as a city not to put processes in place and plan for welcoming casinos in. I guarantee you cities like Irving, Arlington and Grand Prairie are looking at the city. If legalization happens at the state level and if we don’t do that as a city of Dallas, we can miss out on the opportunity for additional tax revenue.”
A Dallas City Council committee recently discussed Texas gambling, with some members expressing concerns about public safety and potential negative effects on low-income residents. Despite this, West believes that some level of legalization is imminent.
“I would guess the state does something,” he said. “Maybe not full legalization. Maybe just a few licenses here and there to sort of test out the waters like they did with medical marijuana. But I foresee something happening in this next session.”
When asked what gambling would look like in the state, West said, “Regulated, firstly. Secondly, [generating] tax revenue for the city to pay for whatever we decided is needed: additional public safety infrastructure, parks [and] libraries.”
West’s comments come amid increasing interest in gambling legalization in Texas. The recent sale of Mark Cuban’s majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks to the families who own Las Vegas Sands and the planned expansion of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas further fuel discussions around gambling as a potential economic boon for the city.
