Foley & Lardner LLP of counsel David Cabrales is featured in the Law360 Q&A, “Developers Lie In Wait For Texas Gambling’s Passage,” sharing insights on the latest efforts to introduce casinos and sports betting to Texas.
Cabrales described Texas’ history on the topic, the political landscape today, and some of the core focuses of the ongoing legislative debate.
“The idea of trying to bring casinos to Texas has been going on for the better part of a decade,” Cabrales explained, highlighting that the legalizing of casinos and sports betting would cause a ripple effect on real estate in the cities and counties where projects are developed, especially as massive “destination resort” casinos gain traction elsewhere.
“The discussion has always assumed there will be a limit on the number of licenses that get granted and that there will be some sort of geographic distribution of those licenses,” he added, noting that there are “a lot of interests within that effort that feel like they want to have the opportunity to be able to open and operate one of the casinos.”
On what kind of control localities would have over casino locations, Cabrales said, “Normal city zoning would apply to any commercial operations, so there’s going to be aspects of that that’ll carry over.”
“If there’s something unique to casinos or gambling, that may be dealt with at the statewide level in the bill,” he added, “but normal types of city control of any commercial operations, I’m sure, would still apply.
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