Can you name the top three U.S. cities by population? I believe most Americans can, but very few know the fourth largest, soon to be third largest, city in the United States of America. Go ahead, take a guess. Spoiler alert: it’s Houston, Texas.
Yes Houston, Texas will soon pass Chicago, Illinois to become the third largest city in the country. When you compare the two cities for livability and touristic impact we see two very different pictures. Houston embraces livability, Chicago has the touristic draw. Who the hell wants to go to Houston anyway?
Houston could be an amazing tourist destination, but Houston doesn’t care about being a destination city, quite frankly, neither does the rest of the country. Even if it did, there is one huge obstacle to Houston, Galveston, Corpus Christi, or San Antonio becoming a tourist destination. That obstacle is none other than the Republican led Texas Legislature and the Governor’s office.
For decades, and I do mean decades, like since the 1980s and possibly beyond, Texans have clamoured for casinos. Now, I know, I know, casinos do not make you a destination city. Well, except Las Vegas. Oh, and Atlantic City. Oh, and Monaco. All world class, all tourist destinations all very far away from Texas.
Texans are not about to travel thousands of miles to sling money into a slot machine. Texans are innovative and resourceful. As a result, we have game rooms all over town. Good old fashioned back room casinos like the mob used to run. We also have a boat or two that sail out to international waters and become floating casinos, and one Indian Casino with video poker and slot machines—no table games. Most convenience stores have a few slot machines that are for “entertainment” purposes only.
No oversight, no regulation, it’s like the wild west for gamblers out here. Including the mud, the blood, and the beer. Meanwhile, people who are not interested in the inevitable Chicago neck-tie, don’t want to gamble in scuzzy mob/cartel run back room casinos. They also don’t want to double down while tossing their cookies on the high seas, or play frickin’ video slot poker bingo at the Indian Casino.
Houstonians and Texans in general—remember we are innovative and resourceful—will travel a few hundred miles to visit casinos in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Literally billions of dollars driving to our other states just to say “hit me” in safe, comfortable surroundings.
Now, I’m not a big gambler. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have wagered money in a casino. I used to live in Detroit and we had three casinos. I visited the Greek Town Casino once in fifteen years. However, many people are entertained by wagering their hard earned money on games in which they are almost guaranteed to lose.
It is a widely accepted fact in the industry that at any time, day or night—in any legitimate casino in the world—eighty percent of gamblers are winning. It is also true that ninety-five percent of those people will lose all their gains plus two to three times their initial buy in.
Gambling is addictive—so are cigarettes. Gambling can ruin lives—just like alcohol. I can get in my car and drive to the store and buy as many cigarettes and as much liquor as I want and nobody will say a damn thing. But try and get casino gambling on a public referendum and you just committed political suicide.
Republicans have dominated Texas state politics since the mid 1990s. Governor after promising governor has taken a ripe shit on the constitution and general liberty. What should have been a move towards smaller government and fewer restrictions has become a race to see who can be more confiscatory and tyrannical.
The casino naysayers doll out the same tired lines. Casinos bring organized crime. Except casinos are all owned by organized corporations. Casinos bring the whores. Except the whores are already here and everyone knows it.
Yes, the whores are all here! Woohoo! I live in the suburbs, thirty miles from downtown Houston. I can pull out my nine iron, and hit a golf ball through three whorehouses from my back yard. Now, you might be a bit spurious, but let me explain.
Every major city has places where you can get a good massage. Every major city also has whorehouses that pose as massage parlors. I know it, you know it, every damn cop knows it. Every year the cops makes a big show of busting a few massage parlors around town, but there are hundreds that serve thousands of customers every day, including Sunday.
I’m not the type of guy who would deny two consenting adults their fun, but the massage parlours are not that. A sexual encounter in a massage parlour is a sexual encounter with a real life sex slave—and again, we all know that.
A casino or twelve are not going to bring in more illegal prostitution. We don’t have any more room for whores in this town. We already have a huge problem with prostitution and nobody gives a damn. Next?
Casinos are going to create gambling addicts. Yes, but we already have those too. Years ago, the largest display item in a convenience store was cigarettes. Cigarettes are addictive, right? Now, it’s lottery scratch offs. Every gas station has dozens of different lottery scratch off games on display—I’m talking about four foot by three foot displays filled with thirty or forty different options. There are also vending machines in every grocery store jam packed with lottery scratch off games. The addicts spend hours scratching off tickets and dumping the winnings into more tickets and the cycle continues until they are broke again.
The whores are here, the addicts are here but what about increased crime, especially violent crime? Well when you compare Houston to other major metro areas you begin to realize something.
Houston has had championship basketball, baseball, and soccer teams—looks like we are crime champs too! We have the whores, the addicts, and the violent crime, but we still don’t have casinos. Surely Houston has better crime stats than places with casinos—right? Let’s go to the video tape, or in this case, the next chart.
Oh snap—is that still a thing?—looks like we are kicking some crime fueled ass compared to casino havens. Look at those numbers, it’s astounding. Houston has zero legitimate casinos, but we have a pretty legitimate violent crime problem. How does that fit with the narrative?
I don’t mean to come down too hard on Texas Republicans, I really don’t. If the Democrats were in office things would be much, much worse. As I age, I become more and more of an anarchist, but that is a whole other article.
Everything the Republican led Texas Legislature claims to fear is already here. Yet year after year we send billions of dollars to Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Louisiana—and you can’t go to the casinos in Mississippi without seeing Texas plates in the parking lot. I’m not saying casinos are a solution, but put it to a vote. Let the citizens of Texas make that choice. If they say no, fine, but I’m guessing they will loudly say YES!
We have the whores, the addicts, and the violent crime. What we don’t have is the revenue, the jobs, or professional control that casinos will offer. The only thing standing in the way is fear—from a bunch of politicians who wouldn’t know liberty if it bit them in the ass.
Texas, like all states, has many problems. Freedom is not one of them. On Friday, Governor Gregg Abbott conspicuously did not sign Senate Bill 3 which bans the legal sale and possession of Delta 8 THC. He has also, and conspicuously I might add, has not made his opinion on the matter publicly known.
Delta 8 THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is derived from hemp. It has similar properties to Delta 9 THC which is derived from cannabis. Cannabis is hemp’s unruly cousin on steroids. Delta 8 is a milder form of THC—it is not going to turn you into a giggling frat boy glutton who can’t stop saying dude. Delta 8 users typically use it for anxiety, stress, relaxation and pain. Many veterans rely on Delta 8 to help them live a normal life.
Now, I just did what everyone always does. I named a hot button group that has a special need to make you feel sympathetic to my position. The same exact thing Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has done with the children.
Please pick up what I’m about to put down. Fuck them kids. Yes, fuck them all. I was a kid once and I grew up to be an asshole. I’ve been an asshole a lot longer than I was ever a kid. Those kids that Dan Patrick is so afraid of being damaged by Delta 8 THC—will grow up to be assholes too.
Liberty is sometimes dangerous, sometimes nasty, but always necessary. Let me get back to Gov. Abbott, who has also been an asshole longer than he was a kid. On Friday, he signed five hundred bills into law but not Senate Bill 3. He has until June 22, 2025 to sign or veto the bill. As of Saturday June 21, 2025, he hasn’t done shit. If he does nothing the bill becomes law on September, 1 2025.
What a coward. He is going to let this thing pass into law and never say a word. He is going to shutter thousands of legitimate business, hurt farmers, and hurt people who use Delta 8 like medicine. Don’t get me started on the big pharma push to keep weed, in all forms, illegal.
June 22nd to September 1st which is 69 days. Yet, the ban is supposed to protect children. The poor Delta 8 addicted pre-teen are going to continue to drop like flies for 69 days? Is that really protection? Is that really thoughtful and caring?
What do you think is going to happen on Monday June 23rd? You got it, a fire sale on all Delta 8 products. All seven thousand plus registered consumable hemp retailers are going to fire sale their stocks. Then, it’s back to the black market for veterans in pain, so the children won’t be harmed.
Oh and those children that are convincing their older siblings to buy Delta 8 for them, they are going to build stockpiles of the stuff. Kids are stupid, I know, I was one. With unfettered access to large stockpiles of Delta 8, the kids that Dan Patrick wants to protect, are going to be having a hot time in the old town for months.
However—and this is a big however—the street weed slingers are going to redouble their efforts, and the price of weed is going up. Not to mention, once again, Texas is going to streamline revenue for other states complete with a big fat legal bow.
Stupid laws from little men are flying us down the path to tyranny. Yeah, yeah, I know tyranny seems a bit strong, but this is how it starts. When governments dictate which legal substances you can and can’t put in your mouth people die. Delta 8 has been legal since 2018. This ridiculous ban for it’s ridiculous reason is going to kill people—make no mistake.
People who have been using Delta 8 will start going to the black market. The black market is the black market because that shit is dangerous. With the fentanyl laced drugs pouring across the border people will die. With renewed interest in selling illegal Delta 9 cannabis, people will die. Just like they started dying on January 17, 1920 when the Volstead Act went into effect.
Between 1920 and 1933 over 65,000 violent deaths occurred as a direct result of the liquor black market trade. Upwards of 50,000 additional people died as the result of tainted alcohol. Coming to a kid near you, fentanyl laced Delta 8 gummies—and you can take that to the bank.
More people are killed every year by acetaminophen, the active ingredient of Tylenol, than have ever been killed by Delta 8. Now harm is a relative word because the jury is still out on Delta 8 but let’s be serious. How many times have you heard of someone overdosing on TCH. Never because it is physically impossible.
Nobody is calling for a ban of Tylenol. Nobody is trying to stop Walgreens from selling one of its best sellers. Nobody gives a plug damn about Tylenol and it has been wreaking havoc as long as it’s been around. People die from Tylenol every day. There are zero confirmed deaths from Delta 8. If the 1-2 cases are ever decided (and they are several years old) then we might have something, but there is nothing, and there never will be.
I don’t want to see children harmed by Delta 8 or any other substance. Every smoke shop must, by law, have a visible sign on the door that states, Must Be 21 to Enter—liquor stores don’t. I can take my kid to Applebee’s and order him a beer and he can drink it in front of everybody. But his under 21 year old ass can’t walk into a cigar shop.
Politicians suck, they have always sucked. Unfortunately, politicians are hell bent on controlling your life, every aspect of it. I’m not an advocate for legalizing all drugs. Cannabis and hemp should both be legalized.
Nobody is going to smoke a joint and get pissed, and beat his wife and kids. Furthermore, no one is going to smoke a joint and get in his car and kill a family of four. Let that same fictional dude drink a six pack or two of Natty Light Tall Boys, and Katie bar the door. Fists fly, cars are crashed, lives are ruined. Does pot ruin lives, you damn right it does, but not nearly at the same rate as fully legal alcohol.
Casinos in Texas ha, keep dreaming. Delta 8 for sale next month, forget about it. However, my property taxes have been reformed. We passed the largest property tax cut in Texas history thanks to Gregg Abbott and Dan Patrick. However—another big however—property values have gone through the roof, and the tax relief is nowhere in sight. The politicians played rope-a-dope with us and laughed all the way to the bank.
The state of Texas operates on a surplus of billions of dollars each year, all of which is confiscated from its citizens in the form of taxes. Sales tax is the largest revenue grabber accounting for over 60% of state revenue. Every stick of gum, every Delta 8 gummy, everything but unprepared foods carry an 8.25% sales tax. I said everything, but luxury items like yachts, jets, cars, houses, are less, but not “less” enough.
Imagine you bought a six pack of beer that costs $10.00. Fortunately for you, you have a $10 bill in your pocket. It is clearly marked on the shelf—the beer is ten bucks. You take it to the cashier and he rings it up for you. Boom, you now owe him ten dollars and eighty-three cents. That extra $0.83 goes to the state.
Texas sees about 29 million retail transactions per day. If you only had to pay $0.83 in tax no matter what you bought, Texas tax coffers would grow by $2,407,000 every day of the year. That is $878,555,000 per year in tax revenue from sales tax alone.
There are over thirty million residents in Texas. It is a big job to govern thirty million people, especially when you think you’re the arbiter of their thoughts, motivations, hopes, and dreams. Micromanaging is never a good thing. I don’t need Dan Patrick and Gregg Abbott tag teaming my freedom and refusing to deliver on basic promises.
I could rant on this for days, but I’m bringing it in for a landing. I’m not a big casino gambler, but I would rather people gamble in huge luxurious casinos in Texas than any other state. I’m not a midnight toker—but if you can shoot a cow and eat it, you can pick a plant and smoke it.
Texas is a great state. Well, great might be an oversell. Texas isn’t slow, it isn’t fast, it is about half fast. Between the ridiculous property taxes, the fact that our state borders are a sieve for tourist revenue, and the explosion of tax payer funded (make no mistake, it is tax payer funds) toll roads that we must pay to drive on—Texas is becoming a bit of a shithole. Again, that is a bit of an oversell.
Since the absolute Republican takeover in the mid 1990s I’ve been optimistic that Texas would become a beacon of freedom and responsibility but we are neither. It is not responsible to tax your citizens into the poor house. Yes, Texas has no state income tax—yet. However, Texas has well over one hundred different taxes and fees it uses to confiscate money from our pockets.
Government is intruding into every business and every home. Here is just one example and there are countless. If you want to sell cars in Houston, you need a license. That license comes with a fee and continuing education every two years which comes with more fees—which is gaslight language for taxes. And God help you if you run afoul of HOA regulators, they can take your house because you used the wrong wood to replace your storm torn fence.
What do you think happens if you don’t pay your property tax? That’s right, the county auctions it off to the highest bidder. That begs the question—what real property could you ever truly own in this country? We are taxing ourselves into oblivion while driving out legitimate business, all while claiming to be a business friendly state—hypocrisy knows no bounds.
If Delta 8 goes away tomorrow it won’t impact my life. If we never get casinos, it won’t matter to me. If we never have meaningful property tax reform, well—we’ll never have that.
We, the citizens of this country and Texas deserve better.
We deserve tax reform, the people want it.
We deserve Delta 8, the people want it.
We deserve casinos, the people want it.
But the politicians, they want you to get in line, pay your taxes, and shut the fuck up—will you?
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