The Las Vegas Sands corporation
The Las Vegas Sands corporation and others in the gambling industry have hired an army of lobbyists and are spending millions to push their case in Austin. Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, filed the legislation Friday, a few months after Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, filed a similar Senate resolution. “Polling over the last year makes it clear that more than 85% of Texans want the right to vote on this issue, (R)epublicans and (D)emocrats alike,” Geren said in a statement. “It is high time that the legislature listens to the voters and allow them to decide this issue. I, for one, am not in the business of denying the voters of Texas their voice when their preference is so clear.”