Eric Tunchez, the founder of the Corpus Christi Crónica, a digital online news and commentary outlet, has been arrested on gambling-related charges in Corpus Christi. The Coastal Bend’s NBC affiliate, KRIS 6 News, was the first to report the arrest.
The television station reported that Tunchez was charged with intentionally or knowingly operating a game room, gambling promotion, keeping a gambling place and possession of a gambling device. A spokesperson for the Corpus Christi Police Department confirmed to MySA that Tunchez had a warrant for his arrest. This weekend’s arrest wasn’t Tunchez’s first brush with Texas’ muddy anti-gambling laws.
Last May, Corpus Christi police arrested Tunchez on similar charges after the department’s Narcotics and Vice Investigations Division (NVID) conducted raids at two separate alleged gambling establishments, including the Lucky Panda Game Room on the 5200 block of Ayers Street and the Lucky Spot Game Room on the 4100 block of Weber Road.
In that incident, Tunchez was charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, a state jail felony, knowingly operating a game room, gambling promotion, possession of a gambling device and keeping a gambling place, all misdemeanors. It remains unclear if Tunchez’s new arrest stems from new charges or is related to last year’s raid.
At the time, however, Tunchez claimed his arrest was retaliation for his failed runs for political office. Tunchez has previously run for a seat on the Corpus Christi City Council. Tunchez declined to comment on his latest arrest. But, in a social media post last May, Tunchez said he had worked as a “consultant” for the Lucky Panda as it sought to navigate Corpus Christi and Nueces County’s labyrinthine game room permitting process.
Texas law largely prohibits most forms of gambling. However, there’s a legal gray area for games of chance that offer non-cash prize payouts valued at less than $5. It’s commonly called the “fuzzy animal exception.” Across South Texas, several cities and counties have sought to capitalize on the fuzzy animal exception by passing strict permitting and taxing regulations that ostensibly allow for the legal operation of so-called “8-liners.”
In two small towns in the Rio Grande Valley, those regulations cost game room operators as much as $50,000 per year just to apply for a permit, and thousands more in per-machine taxes and usage fees. But within a year, law enforcement raided and shut down the dozen or so game rooms that had opened in Elsa and Edcouch, while federal agents carried out similar raids at Edcouch and Elsa city halls. In another case, a Lyford woman was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for her role in a $21 million gambling ring in rural Willacy County.