The history / legality of these Texas poker rooms is an interesting read.
Several articles in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper explain about the gray area of public poker in Texas -- where legal laws and supply-demand intersect (or co-exist?).

See link here, if you're interested in more:
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2024/06/06/private-poker-rooms-legal-texas-gambling/73974868007/#

After all, poker is a birthright in Texas, right? The #1 poker game is called Texas Hold'em, and some of the top players were named Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, "Amarillo Slim" Preston and others.

The law and gambling have had a long-running feud in Texas, going back to the days when Benny Binion chose to leave Dallas for Las Vegas when, as he told it, "my Sheriff lost the election". Sort of like the competition between moonshining and some Southern states.

One more observation -- some of the legal arguments remind me of the California gambling laws which prohibited gambling, including a mention of "stud-horse poker" being illegal. Stud-horse poker was thought to mean stud poker, though never specifically defined as such. But the cardroom operators just bypassed that hurdle by offering only draw games -- 5 card draw (high) and 5-card draw low (lo-ball) in the early days. That's what the big rooms in Gardena, and lots of other rooms around the state dealt originally. Eventually the dam broke and the clubs deal all the poker games & more now. However, full casino action is reserved for the Native American casinos around the state, and even they can't do a few things -- like use a ball & roulette wheel, or use dice for a craps game.

Such is the crazy world where answering what's legal and what the public wants are 2 different things from state to state! Sort of like the laws about liquor purchase and consumption, which vary from state to state and among localities. But that's a story for another day...

(BTW, I'm originally from Texas and now live in California.)

End of essay.