About Us
TAG is a non-partisan coalition of public policy, political, religious and law enforcement groups that oppose the expansion of predatory gambling in Texas. By predatory gambling, we mean gambling businesses – big, exploitative, and dedicated to draining money from people and communities. We believe:
- Gambling is bad public policy. Gambling always fails to deliver the long-term revenue it promises; it increases crime, bankruptcy and addiction in the states where it is allowed to operate.
- Gambling targets those populations who can least afford to lose money: low-income populations, those on fixed incomes, and increasingly, women and the young.
- Gambling is bad for business. Texas doesn’t “lose” money to surrounding casino-loving states; those states lose money to casino owners and stockholders. The gambling business model does not produce the “multiplier” effect of other businesses; it sucks money out of a community that other types of businesses return in the form of service contracts and higher wages. Gambling enterprises frequently demand tax breaks so survive long-term.
Our History
The anti-gambling coalition in Texas has been active for more than half a century under different names and leadership. In the 1950s and 1960s, the opposition was led by men like Judge Abner McCall and Dr. W.R. White, both presidents of Baylor University. In those years we were a loosely knit group of opponents to pari-mutuel betting.
During the 1060s through the 1980s, gambling opponents broadened their concerns to include crime, eventually, in the 1980s, becoming the Anti-Crime Council of Texas. This loosely knit coalition successfully defeated repeated attempts to place pari-mutuel gambling on the ballot.
In 1986, the Texas Legislature passed pari-mutuel legislation subject to voter approval in a 1987 referendum. In order to wage a campaign against the upcoming pari-mutuel gambling referendum, the Anti-Crime Council of Texas adopted the name Texans Who Care. Pari-mutuel gambling was not defeated at the ballot box that November. Pari-mutuel gambling has been a dismal failure and has never delivered the revenue to the state that its proponents promised.
The Legislature caved in again to well-financed gambling interests in 1991 and passed the Texas Lottery. Like pari-mutuel gambling, the state-sponsored lottery was not defeated at the ballot box in November and like pari-mutuel gambling, the Texas Lottery has been a failure, never producing the revenue promised by its proponents.
In 1992 Texans Who Care underwent reorganization and staff changes. Several attempts to expand legalized gambling during the next two sessions were defeated. In 1994, Texans Who Care became Texans Against Gambling to better reflect the purpose of the organized effort to prevent the further expansion of legalized gambling in Texas. Since 1995, we and our allies have been successful in defeating efforts to legalize some form of casino or slot machine gambling in every legislative session.
Organizational Friends
TAG cooperates with these groups on gambling issues to prevent the expansion of Big Gambling in Texas by informing the public about the realities and consequences of gambling and motivating voters to make their views known to lawmakers. Following are opponents of gambling in Texas:
Our Goals
National gambling business are massive, rich and well organized, and are planning a major move into Texas in 2009. They have put numerous powerful lobbyists on their payroll to influence lawmakers and their staffs in the next legislative session, which is when and where this fight will take place. Our goals are to keep the public informed about gambling legislation, potential impacts, donations to lawmakers and how constituents can help oppose expansion attempts.
TAG is the only single-issue organized opposition to gambling expansion in Texas, and we need your help. We need money and we need active constituents ready to make their voices heard. Please sign up today to join our cause. Also, please forward this website to friends and neighbors so they can join too.
Board of Directors
The following are members of TAG's Board of Directors:
Officers:
- Jack L. Ballou CPA, Treasurer, Arlington, TX
- Alicia Enriquez, Secretary, Dallas, TX
- John Thielepape, Vice Chair, Weatherford, TX
- Mike Weber, Chair, Willow Park, TX
Directors:
- Pete Allen, Sunnyvale, TX
- Jack L. Ballou, Arlington, TX
- W.H. Bill Brian, Jr..Amarillo, TX
- Jim Brokenbek, Amarillo, TX
- Ken Camp, Garland, TX
- Isabelle Collora, Dallas, TX
- Herschel Forester.Dallas, TX
- Dick Graves, Waco, TX
- Jana Jackson,Dallas, TX
- Kent Kilbourne, Aledo, TX
- Carter Lyles, Paris, TX
- Dan McClinton, Waxahachie, TX
- Suzii Paynter, Austin, TX
- John Schelter,Garland, TX
- David Smith, Houston, TX
- John Thielepape, Weatherford TX
- Weston Ware, Cedar Hill, TX
- Mike Weber, Willow Park, TX
- Rodger Weems, Grand Prairie, TX
- Tom Wilbanks, Mesquite, TX
Revised 4-30-10