CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — County leaders discuss possible regulation of game rooms
According to law enforcement there could be at least 100 active game rooms just within the city limits of Corpus Christi, but at this point not a single one is regulated by the county to ensure they are operating legally.
Wednesday, Nueces County Commissioners spent a lengthy amount of time looking at moving toward creating an ordinance of their own.
The goal is provide oversight and in turn prevent illegal cash payouts and other criminal activity.
"The prizes awarded cannot exceed 10 times the amount to play the machine one time or $5, whichever is less," Chief Deputy David Cook told commissioners.
Chief Cook is with the Nueces County Sheriff's Office and provided a briefing on what it would take to effectively regulate and enforce game rooms.
"If you pass an ordinance and want us to do the background investigations, follow up with proper inspections, go to locations to determine if they are permitted and in compliance and if not, the action we are going to have to take in order to shut them down," Cook explained.
He told commissioners there could be at least 100 active game rooms in the city alone.
"Game rooms come and go on a regular basis, making it difficult to keep track of most likely more than they are aware of," said Chief Cook.
Through the state of Texas, the county can require game rooms to be permitted. The county can also restrict the location of game rooms to specified areas of the county.
Leaders can even prohibit a game room location within a certain distance of a school, regular place of religious worship, or residential neighborhood.
"And you can do other things like say alright you have to have 15 feet of room per machine, you have to have windows you can see clearly through, determine hours of operation so they are not open to 3-4 in the morning," said Chief Cook.
Chief Cook said any ordinance would provide much stronger enforcement, but warned its success depends on funding.
"If you pass the ordinance and don't fund it, you are not going to get the enforcement," said Cook.
Chief Cook highlighted it would also take a strong commitment from the district attorney's office to aggressively prosecute the criminal cases filed.
"Sheriff Hooper did some investigating yesterday, and he was able to determine, since 2015 23 gambling cases field here in Nueces County 20 of which have been dismissed," said Cook.
"District Attorney Mark Gonzalez has Zealously prosecuted gaming cases," said First Assistant District Attorney Angelica Hernandez.
Hernandez contends the DA's office is already taking an active role and said a lot of these gaming cases even if they operate in the city, they are going to federal court.
"Since July of 2020, the district attorney office issued a very public cease and desist letter in collaboration with CCPD regarding gambling in Corpus Christi," said Hernandez.
But even after all of the discussion,
"I don't believe it's doable in Nueces County," Sheriff JC Hooper told commissioners about the possibility of implementing any such ordinance.
When asked why, Sheriff Hooper pointed to a record year of homicides and traffic fatalities.
"We have serious issues in our region and game rooms is not one of them at this time," said Hooper.
He said ordinances in other counties have failed and are just not being enforced.
"The city of Corpus Christi has an ordinance against fireworks. How is that working out? It makes absolutely no sense to make a law that cannot be enforced," said Sheriff Hooper.
Commissioner Joe Gonzalez said they need to at least give it a shot.
"I'm not the one to say it's not going to work. I think we need to say let's try and see if it works," said Gonzalez.
While this was just a discussion, commissioners have asked the county attorney to come up with an ordinance to bring before them possibly by the end of the month.
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