How are these slot machines not gambling? They include memorization elements similar to the vintage Simon game that was a symbol of 1980s pop culture. As such, former 336th Judicial District Court Judge Laurine Blake, who retired Dec. 31, 2024, determined they are games of skill, not games of chance.<\/p>\n
That decision was affirmed last year by the state\u2019s Sixth Appellate District. The three-judge panel spilt 2-1.<\/p>\n
The ruling has emboldened game operators and local businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re kind of waving this in the air now and saying their machines are not gambling devices and therefore legal,\u201d said Shannon Edmonds, executive director for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, the state\u2019s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to Texas prosecutors and their employees.<\/p>\n
Within a year, Edmonds predicted, these new devices likely will be fixtures across Texas<\/a> in grocery stores,\u00a0gamerooms, convenience stores, gas stations and just about anywhere they can find an outlet and a welcome home.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re going to start pushing more aggressively and putting these machines all over,\u201d Edmonds said.<\/p>\n In Dallas, they\u2019re already here, said Allison B. Hudson, spokeswoman for the Dallas Police Department.<\/p>\n On average, police have approximately 40 to 50 ongoing investigations related to gambling devices. Some of those devices qualify as legal, Hudson said, because they are identified as games of skill<\/a>. The bulk of the devices, she said, are determined after those investigations to be illegal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe focus our enforcement efforts on devices that clearly meet the definition of illegal gambling under state law,\u201d Hudson said.<\/p>\n The court ruling provides some guidance on which machines are legal, but without new state legislation the matter is largely in the hands of individual police agencies and prosecutors.<\/p>\n The ruling aside, Kevin Palmer says he\u00a0 knows gambling when he sees it.<\/p>\n Palmer, the Van Zandt County Fire Marshal, inspects the devices in bars, gamerooms and other parts of a community east of Dallas.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I go sit at this machine and just keep hitting the button,\u201d Palmer said, \u201cI\u2019m doing nothing but 100% gambling, OK?\u201d<\/p>\n Operators disagree.<\/p>\n \u201cOur games have been ruled legal in Texas as they meet the standard to qualify as games of skill as set forth in statute,\u2019\u2019 said Rachel Albritton, spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based Pace-O-Matic, the devices that were the subject of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The devices are in \u201ctotal compliance with the law,\u201d and she said her company aims \u201cto preserve the right of small businesses and fraternal clubs to benefit from the supplemental income our skill games provide.\u201d<\/p>\n In Canton, a city east of Dallas best known for its indoor flea market, the spread of the gaming devices has fueled a bitter dispute<\/a> in a runoff in the district attorney’s race.<\/p>\n Incumbent Tonda Curry asserts the devices are not gambling machines and has permitted businesses to feature them in their establishments. Challenger Richard Schmidt disagrees with that assessment and is being backed by residents who are pushing to unseat her, including state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood.<\/p>\n Hall, who is one of the most outspoken critics of gambling in the legislature, is determined to eradicate the devices from the region he represents.<\/p>\n The law is clear, Hall said. Gambling devices are illegal in Texas. It doesn\u2019t matter if the devices include skill, he said, \u201ceven 1% chance means the games are illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s become a disturbing situation, he said, that could lead to a different application of the law depending on the jurisdiction.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have two kinds of DAs in the state,\u201d Hall said, \u201cthose who enforce the law and those who choose to overlook it.\u201d<\/p>\n Curry did not respond to questions provided in three emails and a call.<\/p>\n But in comments and a video on her Facebook page, \u201cTonda is Tough,\u201d she said that up until now, all businesses that featured gaming machines had been found legal under Texas law. Game manufacturers changed the technology of their games to comply. And in consultations with other prosecutors and legal experts on the matter, they agreed that \u201cit would be very difficult under Texas law as it is written to prosecute these gamerooms.\u201d<\/p>\n In a recent post, she said she had submitted a request to the Texas Attorney General\u2019s office to seek clarification.<\/p>\n That request, she said, is now pending review. \u201cThe process takes time,\u201d she wrote, \u201cand it may be a couple of months before an opinion issued.\u201d<\/p>\n The Wild West<\/p>\n Texas was once a gambler\u2019s paradise.<\/p>\n Beginning with its frontier heritage well into the early decades of the 20th Century, Texas\u2019 wild west image carried over into red-light or \u201cvice districts\u201d established in cities such as Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston and particularly Galveston, said\u00a0Cal Jillson, professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.<\/p>\n A precinct in downtown Fort Worth was known as \u201cHell\u2019s Half-Acre.\u201d<\/p>\n By 1903, gambling had been outlawed, Jillson said, and there was a widespread moral denunciation of those districts.<\/p>\n Still, communities were not able to fully confront those highly visible profitable districts, Jillson said, that featured saloons, gambling and prostitution.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until the 1950s that enforcement became stricter, and Texas\u2019 most notorious gamblers left for Las Vegas. That included Dallas gambling kingpin Benny Binion, who began his career as a dice dealer for Diamond\u2019s St. George Hotel casino on Commerce Street in Dallas; and Jake Freedman, the Houston oil man and gambler who helped establish the Sands Hotel and Casino, the predecessor to the Las Vegas-based Sands Corp., which is working so hard to get back to Texas.<\/p>\n By the 1960s and beyond, social conservatism was rising as a result of the influence of Mel and Norma Gabler, the well-known Longview couple that pushed for textbook reforms and over four decades influenced a wave of elected officials in local communities and at the statehouse.<\/p>\n And so, the anti-vice legislation that passed, Jillson said, \u201cwas an attempt to keep people on the straight and narrow so that they\u2019re better, more productive citizens.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n![\"Descriptive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/icon-dice.279cf042.png\"){kind=icon}
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