Economist weighs in on how casinos would impact Central Texas

Dr. Rob Tennant said there are multiple gains and drawbacks to the bill’s passage, but there’s a chance a casino could come to the Central Texas area. He said that would bring new jobs, increase salaries, and increase visitors to the area which is good for economic growth of any community, especially more rural communities.

“If a casino comes to an area that doesn’t have them and there aren’t casinos in, like, adjoining counties, the realization is more substantial, and, in more rural situations, what it does is it tends to create a significant number of new jobs,” he said. “It tends to increase salaries, wages in those communities, and it can bring people in from the surrounding communities to those venues.”

Casinos are known for bringing millions of dollars in tax revenue to states that legalize it, but Tennant said Texas may not see too much of an increase.

“If they get casinos, it’s likely to cannibalize the business, meaning that if they used to gamble on horses, dogs, or lotteries and they now have casinos, it’s more going to be a shift in gambling dollars versus a creation of new gambling dollars,” he said. “That’s frequently the case, so it’s not quite as clear.”

However, Tennant added that, because Texans travel to neighboring states to gamble, if Texans could gamble at casinos within their state, that would decrease the amount of money leaving the state.

Since the bill still has several more stages before it becomes a law, Tennant recommends Central Texans be aware of both kinds of impacts the bill could bring.

“I would always make sure to think about the net positives that could occur,” he said, “New jobs, potentially higher wages, maybe new dollars, and any potential side effects like spurring on. There’s about one to 2% of the population that tends to have addiction problems when it becomes facilitated, and that creates other situations in the community.”

The City of Waco economic development team said they have not discussed potential projects. The bill still needs to be passed by the house committee before taking on the house floor.