TX: A Texas Ban on Gambling That Doesn't Quite Work

The New York Times: SULLIVAN CITY, Tex. — Casino gambling with cash payoffs is illegal in Texas. But on a drizzly Tuesday afternoon in February, you could not tell it by the scene inside a former tire shop near this Rio Grande Valley border town: a few dozen men and women gambling on 75 slot machines in windowless rooms.

Among the cattle ranches and wind-battered palm trees on U.S. Highway 83, the setting was lowbrow — free chips and soft drinks were the only amenities — but the payouts, in one of the poorest sections of Texas, were substantial, up to $4,000 per play.

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