This Week in Texas Methodist History January 30, 2022 Texas Methdodists Suppport Governor Allred’s Call to Repeal Pari-muteul Race Track etting January 1937 One of the great social shifts that have occurred in my lifetime has been the wide-spread acceptance of gambling not just in Texas, but in the United States. Gambling in Texas was strictly illegal in the Texas in which I grew up, and I adopted the stance of my parents and church in coming to see gambling as inherently evil. I was not allowed to play marbles for keeps. II asm glad my pafrents instilled these values in me. Today even sports betting is legal, and it seems that no stigma is attached to casinos, sports betting, horse race betting, raffles, and bingo. Gambling did have a long tradition in Texas. There are missionary letters complaining that Sundays were given over to horse racing in several Texas towns. County fairs attracted travelling gamblers, and the story of E. L. Shettles (1852-1940) became known. Shettles was a professional gambler who was converted and became a prominent Methodist preacher. I recommend his autobiography for more details on his gambling life and conversion. The same impules of reform that resulted in prohibition of alcohol also resulted in prohibition of gambling. Methodists were prominent in the fight against both vices. During the Depressionl though, both alcohol and gambling were seen as potential sources fo revenue for state coffers. Alcohol was made legal through the local option law. Wagering on horses and greyhounds was also legalized. Both vices prospered in the oil boom towns and large cities of Texas and even in smaller communities. Another formative experience of my adolescence was the clean up of Beaumont in which my father played a prominent part in rooting out prostitution, gambling, and after hours liquour sales. The legalization of gambling did not make it acceptable for Methodistst so which Governor James Allred (1899-1959) put the issue of repealing race track gambling on the legislature agenda in January 1937, Methodists jumped in to support him. Perhaps you are not familiar with Governor Jimmy Allred, but he was a bright spot between two of our states’s worst governors. He succeed Miriaim “Ma: Ferguson in 1935. She has been the subject of a previous entry in this blog. Her specialty was taking bribes for issuing pardons. Many of the pardons went to convicted bootleggers thereby circumventing the efforts of Methodists to suppress the liquor trade. He was followed by W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, an incompetent buffon. He was a dry though and therefore acceptable to many single-issue prohibition voters. In his legislagtive agenda speech Allred used the standard arguments I internalized in my youth. First—illegal gambling always follows legal gambling—criminal gamblers do not report winnings so winters can evade taxes on those winnings. Second==some people will become addicted to gambling and steal and embezzle funds to support their addictions and also deprive their families of the necessities thereby forcing families on relief.