CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Game rooms became a topic of discussion among the Corpus Christi City Council Tuesday as questions regarding money and manpower made their way to the table.
A number of individuals showed up to City Hall to tell councilmembers how upset they were about the number of game rooms that are now all around town, and how that is hurting Bingo businesses.
According to Sales Manager Ronnie Baker with Roy Bingo Supplies, a solution to the issues has not been addressed.
"You promised to do something," Baker said. "You said there would be something done about regulating game rooms. It hasn't been done."
Margaret Baldwin is the bookkeeper for Roy Bingo Supplies and said that in order for a solution to be found, the City of Corpus Christi and Nueces County must come together.
There were no shortage of people lining up to give Council their views on game rooms. This all happened during the public comment part of the meeting. Police Chief Mike Markle and others were also set to give a presentation to Council on the game room issue.
Markle told 3News that he and his department have investigated around 96 complaints about game rooms around town since 2015.
"We've been doing enforcement actions for many years," Markle said. "We go in, we'll shut down a game room, or a gambling establishment. It's not illegal to own one, it's illegal to operate one illegally."
Markle pointed out that the the City has been the primary law enforcement agency for gambling and game room investigations -- police work that he said takes a lot of time and manpower.
"It takes resources and time, and patience. And you had to go in and be a patron and, you know, do some UC stuff," Markle said.
Sheriff John Hooper told 3News that trying to keep the jail running is his biggest concern right now. He is needing to hire nearly 50 jailers, and he simply doesn't have the manpower to do that, and game room investigations.
"We're fighting a different battle at this time with jail overcrowding and the condition of the jail," Hooper said.
That presentation to the council also spelled out that if the City was going to have to do game room investigations, it would need to be compensated by the County for some of that effort.
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