AUSTIN — From www.star-telegram.com- Sex. Smoking. Alcohol.

These are among the so-called sins the Texas Legislature is considering regulating — for better or worse — this session.

From a statewide smoking ban to a 10 percent tax on entry fees to sexually oriented businesses, lawmakers are looking at tightening restrictions.

The House has approved a new tax on sexually oriented business.

Every sexually oriented business that charges admission — such as strip clubs, adult movie theaters and adult video clubs — would pay a 10 percent tax on entry-fee gross receipts.

It would replace a controversial $5-per-person “pole tax” that started in 2007 and has ended up in the courts. An Austin court has ruled that the charge violates a constitutionally protected right of expression. A state appeals court has yet to weigh in.

The new fee could raise as much as $8 million a year, according to estimates from the sponsor, state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, [pictured] D-Houston.

HB982 passed the House and remains in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Another measure — by Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, and Davis and Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound — would boost penalties for prostitution if the offense occurs within 1,000 feet of protected areas such as churches, schools and hotels.

HB724 and SB528 haven’t moved from the committees where they were originally referred — Criminal Jurisprudence in the House and Criminal Justice in the Senate.