Robstown Police roll out advanced camera network to fight crime<\/a><\/p>\nAuthorities say at least three illegal game rooms have been raided in the past two weeks alone, as Texas continues to prohibit most forms of gambling outside of tribal reservations.<\/p>\n
While underground game rooms remain a priority for enforcement, officials say machines that resemble casino-style slot machines \u2014 often marketed as “skill games” \u2014 are also illegal when payouts are involved.<\/p>\n
After I told Nueces County Chief Sheriff’s Deputy David Cook that I had tried out one of the machines at a local gas station, he said the business had committed a crime in plain sight.<\/p>\n
“Allowing these machines to operate within their facility and knowing that the payouts are being made \u2014 that’s called keeping a gambling place, and the owners of those convenience stores could be charged,” Cook said.<\/p>\n
Cook explained that the crime is not necessarily the act of wagering itself, but the payout in any form. In this case, the machine issued a receipt similar to a slot machine ticket, which could then be redeemed at an adjacent machine.<\/p>\n
However, enforcing violations at individual gas stations presents logistical challenges.<\/p>\n
“I would have to put undercover officers in every single one of those convenience stores and have them play, have them receive a payout,” Cook said. “I would have to come back, write a warrant, seize the machines and work our case from there.”<\/p>\n
Because of that, authorities say enforcement efforts are more commonly focused on illegal game rooms \u2014 defined as establishments operating six or more machines without a permit \u2014 which are easier to investigate and prosecute. Corpus Christi police and the Nueces County Sheriff’s Office say three such locations have been shut down in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n
Experts also warn that these machines operate with little to no oversight.<\/p>\n
“There’s not a regulatory body to make sure that those machines pay out or that they’re transparent,” said Dr. Chris Leeth, an assistant professor of counseling at Texas A&M University\u2013Corpus Christi. “There’s no return to the player \u2014 the amount they would win back versus put into play \u2014 it’s not regulated, not overseen, there’s no oversight for it.”<\/p>\n
Law enforcement officials say patrons caught inside illegal game rooms during a raid could also face consequences. Players may receive a Class C citation, punishable by a fine of up to $500.<\/p>\n
Deputy Cook said no citation would be issued for my brief attempt at a machine \u2014 though I did lose $11.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The takeaway, Leeth says, is simple: whether in a game room or a corner gas station, the odds are not in the player’s favor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corpus Christi police and Nueces County deputies are cracking down on illegal game rooms as authorities warn \u201cskill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-150035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}