{"id":191907,"date":"2026-03-05T16:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/191907\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T16:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:18:10","slug":"county-sued-over-recent-game-room-changes-restrictive-business-hours-exceed-authority-suit-claimed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/191907\/","title":{"rendered":"County sued over recent game room changes \u2013 restrictive business hours \u2018exceed\u2019 authority, suit claimed"},"content":{"rendered":"

An angry game room owner filed his threatened lawsuit this week wanting an injunction to stop the updated version of Lubbock County\u2019s game room ordinance \u2013 which, among other things, tightens business hours.<\/p>\n

Previous coverage links:<\/p>\n

El Fronteriso owner Eric Thompson, told LubbockLights.com he planned to sue the county over restrictive business hours and (he claimed) an open meetings violation by County Commissioners.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas law grants counties certain authority to regulate the operation of game rooms within their borders,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this authority to regulate this industry is limited by both constitutional constraints and the authorizing statute,\u201d the suit also claimed.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Kelly Rowe told LubbockLights.com game rooms operate illegally. That\u2019s often true \u2013 but not always, according to El Fronteriso\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile most game rooms in Lubbock illegally pay cash prizes, El Fronteriso does not pay cash,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

El Fronteriso uses a provision of Texas law called the \u201cFuzzy Animal Exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn eight-liner machine, or other game, is not considered a gambling device if players are only awarded non-cash prizes with a wholesale value less than 10 times the amount charged to play the game or $5 per game played, whichever is less,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n

Highlights of El Fronteriso\u2019s claims:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Commissioners exceeded their authority in passing the February changes.<\/p>\n

It was a Texas Open Meetings Act violation (no proper notice about proposed changes to hours of operation).<\/p>\n

The change was a \u201cregulatory taking\u201d without compensation. Game rooms were previously permitted to operate 97 hours (seven days) per week. The 2026 amendments only permit game rooms to operate 45 hours (five days) per week.<\/p>\n

The change is a security risk with mandatory unlocked doors during business hours. Because of the risk of armed robbery, the lawsuit said, \u201cEl Fronteriso needs to be able to utilize its magnetic lock to regulate who may enter the premises.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case remains pending in the 237th District Court before judge Les Hatch. The county has not yet filed its side of the story in court records.<\/p>\n

Click here to read<\/a> the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Related posts\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t– James Clark is the associate editor of Lubbock Lights. He worked in radio, television and digital media for a combined total of more than 30 years. He was Director of Digital News Content at KAMC,…\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tMore by James Clark\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An angry game room owner filed his threatened lawsuit this week wanting an injunction to stop the updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-191907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191907","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=191907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}