William Tarr looked down at the petition and the list of names that were on it. It was a surprisingly long list of names, which was a surprise, though it also lacked addresses and thus he couldn't tell where they were from. He then looked across to the table to the rather greasy looking man in a cheap suit sitting across from him. It was something that frustrated him a bit, and for a few reasons. More often than not, his work as Dino City's Mayor was often done in the evening and often wasn't to much. Most of it related to either dealing with what ordinances the City Council passed, conversing with the City Council, and looking over business requests that also came in. And some did, particularly with Dino City being new, and it made sense with some of the new people that were coming in to become Dinotopians themselves.
However, this greasy man, named Adam, was not one of those usual petitioners. For one he came in the middle of the day, demanded a meeting and essentially forced William Tarr to take time off from his normal daytime job to find a man that had somehow raised money online for what was described as a strip club and casino in Dino City and that made him sigh in frustration on many levels. He had to call in some legal experts from Glen Rose to verify whether or not how Adam raised the money was legal and then had to figure out what kind of "casino" Adam wanted to run. The ultimate answer was that the casino would be run and operated in a way like many of those in Las Vegas with an attached strip club, and that left the problem. Dino City had a building that could be used for that as it was part of all the work that went into building Dino City next to Glen Rose and the campgrounds near Dinosaur Valley State Park. It was originally built with the idea of serving as something of a convention center that would work with the park and serve Rex Ramos's work as a paleontologist and working with the park, though its progress was ultimately halted when Covid hit and many places began shutting down while the pandemic was ongoing.
"A lotta names, huh?" Adam asked with a small smile.
"Yes, a lot of names," William Tarr as he looked down at the petition and then back up Adam, "unfortunately there isn't much I can do and I cannot grant you permission or a license."
"What?!" Adam practically shouted and brought his hands down hard on the table top, making some of the things on the desk shake a bit and blowing the papers into William's lap, "but all the funding was legal! I didn't rob anyone!"
"And based on the papers you've provided... the lawyers in Glen Rose would agree, your funding efforts were legal and your petition is legal," William nodded, "thus there is nothing wrong with making the request. However, based on what you want to open... I cannot allow that under Texas state laws regarding gambling. Under Texas state law, most forms of gambling, including casinos, is illegal in the state. If you were just willing to set up shop that would sell state lotto tickets, that would be fine. But the state cannot allow for casino."
"But what about the Lucky Eagle Casino that's active in the state and makes a fair amount of money?" Adam protested, "and I've seen no reports on Texas going in and shutting it down."
William ran one hand through his hair to brush it back for a moment and gave a groan, as this was something that he'd had to do with the lawyers from Glen Rose and do some additional online research regarding Texas's state laws. He'd known that that the state forbid gambling outside of a few select ways, but he'd never looked into the laws themselves for the exact details and reference numbers. Hew knew that Texas State Law effectively forbid gambling and accepted that, but in dealing with Adam and his request, he'd found he HAD to do that research, if only to explain to the man how Texas State Law worked, as the guy clearly wasn't from Texas, as he wouldn't be requesting permission for a casino from a city when he would need to lobby the State government in Austin to either change the state laws or amend the state's constitution in order to allow for casinos.
"The Lucky Eagle Casino exists, yes, and the Texas state government hasn't closed it down, yes," William nodded, "BUT that casino is also on Native American land and in cooperation with the tribe living there. Thus Texas State Law is exchanged for the tribe's law and the tribe there chose to allow the casino to be built. And while Dino City is an Animalia Colony City... it has NOT been awarded the same sort of protection, and therefore we are under Texas State Law. And as such you cannot have a casino in Dino City at this time."
"But you said you had the building that could be used for it already built!" Adam protested, his voice rising and nostrils flaring a bit.
"Yes, but that building was built in conjunction with building the town and was intended for coordination with the Dinosaur Valley State Park operations," William explained, "however between establishing the city and then Covid hitting... a lot of that operation has slowed and Doctor Ramos's work at the park and with the research into Dinotopian's being able to help into research on Dinosaurs hasn't had the need to go beyond the offices provided him there at the park's educational areas... thus the building has been "available." However, that's still irrelevant as far as Texas State law is concerned and certain aspects of it also go into the Texas state constitution. I am afraid you would need to go to Austin and lobby the state legislature and the Governor to change the state law before any sort of casino could be allowed. It may even require changes to the state's constitution... and that may be difficult for you."
"Difficult?" Adam asked, though his voice betrayed frustration.
"In that you have an impressive list of petitioners, but while the methods used may be legal... given that they're all online and using email address, I can't tell if they are residents of the state of Texas," William pointed out, "and the state is not going to change its laws or its constitution because a bunch of people in California or Nevada want to legalize gambling in Texas. And with the election not that far off... I'm afraid that even if everyone on your petition is from Texas, it is probably too late to do anything about it THIS year."
"But that could take years then..." Adam protested.
"Yes, and the way it SHOULD be," William replied, "Rushed decisions tend to be made in error and lead to mistakes."
"What about the strip club?" Adam gave a sigh.
"That I can reject outright as it relates to Dino City's present municipal laws regarding decency and maintaining some class," William answered, "Dinotopians, like all Animalians, may be very well built and many may enjoy that sort of thing... but we do a lot of business with Glen Rose and are sharing with them the access and trade through the Dinosaur Valley State Part, which is to be run as a family friendly operation. The last thing this town needs is a strip club that will degrade its residents and cause other problems."
"Animalia and Lyre have had the Meat Market and they've had no problems," Adam argued, "you've allowed the Dino Dome to be built with Animalia's communal showers in mind... so it isn't as though you're forbidding people from potentially seeing a naked Animalian."
"Lyre and Animalia have had no "major" problems coming from their "Meat Market" but that isn't to say that they haven't had problems," William answered, "I had to call Lyre's Mayor and their police department... not to mention Animalia's Mayor and their police department... but prior to the Meat Market, on average the Lyre Police department responded about one or two drunk and disorderly conduct calls a month... on average. Likely due to it being a small town and off of many of the major highways. After Animalia got started and the Meat Market opened, Lyre has had had to deal with about three to four drunk and disorderly conduct related calls a week. Animalia gets about two to three of these sorts of calls a week too."
"It's not the Meat Market's fault that people are irresponsible with liquor," Adam pointed out.
"True... but the fact remains that it DOES happen," William replied, "and given the sizes that many Dinotopians could grow to... the fact that we are trying to maintain family oriented opportunities in Dino City in partnership with Glen Rose... the last thing we want or need is to draw in business that is only interested in adult entertainment and then have to increase our own police force to deal with potential drunken idiots causing trouble... or worse a drunken Dinotopian that's fallen on top of someone. And the Dino City Council felt it best to keep Dino City clean of that kind of behavior and imagery..."
"But... those showers..." Adam tried to argue.
"Are there after workouts and sporting events," William answered, "they are not there as a sex opportunity... if a pair gets hot and heavy after a work out... I suppose that is their business, but the facility is there for exercise and sport, not sex. And I guarantee you, if someone goes in there with a camera or just to watch... they will be prosecuted for invading people's privacy."
"And you're against business on this?!" Adam managed to sound more assertive as the question sounded almost like an accusation.
"I'm all for business and all for small government," William replied, "but I'm also for keeping a family friendly environment here and not having the Dinotopians here be treated as though they are eye candy for some drunk to leer at."
Here, William's mind was more focused on Candace at the moment. That was one of the other things that this present intrusion was just part of the frustrating things when it came to trying to keep things open with regard to getting his wedding planned. He'd never really planned to get married before, and that remained true even when Dino City was founded. And yet, over time, Candace's attempts at friendship had grown on him and grown into something more than just friends. It was something William never expected but would never let go of, but Covid created issues in creating opportunities for even the local Glen Rose churches to conduct the ceremony and it had scared his sister and her family, and she was the most important person that would be on the guest list as far as William was concerned.
And instead of being able to try and coordinate plans and find out requirements that would allow the wedding to happen and to be safe, he was having to deal with some guy from out of state who didn't know Texas's laws regarding gambling and seemed to be the sort that would likely try to push Candace into something he knew she wouldn't want to. William leaned against the whole strip club idea thing even before his relationship with Candace started on keeping things as family friendly as possible and minimizing crime as much as possible. Now there was the added incentive, to protect her dignity.
"And there are other parts in the state that do have strip clubs and are in easy driving distance of Dino City," William then spoke, "If anyone in Dino City wants to work in such an establishment, the commute wouldn't be that far and if the demand is high enough... they would get the incentive to enlarge their facilities to accommodate a Dinotopian dancer. And if that is your business, you could talk with them. It might save you time and money while waiting to petition the state of Texas to change its gambling laws... not to mention seeing if Texas residents would want the law or state constitution changed to allow it."
"And the funding...?" Adam demanded, "the people that donated..."
"Either get their money back or have it held in trust until things can change," William replied with narrowed eyes, which finally got the man to admit defeat, at least for the moment.
"I see," Adam spoke as he stood up, accepted the requests and paperwork that he'd presented and then made his way out.
The door was shut loudly and William did hear the man scream "fuck" at the top of his lungs as he went out, but for William he remained firm and in accordance with Texas's state laws and his own convictions. Texas state law forbid gambling in the way that casinos worked and he would not let Dino City end up becoming the sort of place where one of its top "industry" was adult entertainment. And no amount of money would change his mind in that regard.