Mayor: City officials long sought removing eight-liners

The money seen (above) was seized at the Lucky Place Arcade in Harlingen, an eight-liner establishment that was one of five raided Saturday during Operation Bishop. Shown (below) is the estimated $56,322 seized in all five raids but does not include seized ATMs that had not been processed. (Cameron County DA photos)

The money seen (above) was seized at the Lucky Place Arcade in Harlingen, an eight-liner establishment that was one of five raided Saturday during Operation Bishop. Shown (below) is the estimated $56,322 seized in all five raids but does not include seized ATMs that had not been processed. (Cameron County DA photos)

By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com

8-liner raids pic2-4-17-13San Benito city officials said on Tuesday that the consideration of abolishing a city ordinance allowing a certain number of eight-liner establishments to operate within city limits was not necessarily influenced by Cameron County District Attorney’s Office raids that occurred over the weekend but due to concerns that have long mounted in the community.

Mayor Joe Hernandez said city officials may not renew permits for the 10 eight-liner game rooms currently open in San Benito due to such concerns.

“Well, this is something that we’ve wanted to do for quite some time already,” Hernandez said. “We’ve been getting a whole bunch of complaints. It was actually getting out of line. People (some game room owners) were not respecting the elected officials because there were signs out there that they may have $30, $40, $50 and up to $100. What does that tell you? That’s telling you that they’re paying cash.”

“Their permits were given for them to operate in an orderly manner, and not to pay cash,” the mayor added about the stipulations of an ordinance the city may now rescind. “Word out there is that a lot of people are losing a lot of money, and this time the district attorney has taken a huge step in closing them down. Of course, we’re already in the process of abolishing the city ordinance and letting it take its course.”

According to a press release issued by Public Information Officer Melissa Zamora of the Cameron County DA’s Office, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies have begun efforts to “shutdown all eight-liner establishments in Cameron County.” Such efforts began Saturday upon the culmination of an 18-month criminal investigation known as Operation Bishop.

Zamora reported that 456 machines were seized, which will be forfeited and destroyed, in the five eight-liner establishments that were raided, which include Pink Suite in La Feria, Lucky Place Arcade in Harlingen, Golden Arcade in Harlingen, M77 Game Room in Olmito and Sahara Inn in Brownsville. Eight people were also arrested in connected with the raids as well as owners and managers who now face various charges associated with gambling violations. What’s more, property owners will also be placed on notice that they may face losing their properties if they continue to allow eight-liners to operate in their buildings, Zamora stated in the release.

It’s an effort the DA’s office plans on seeing through till December in hopes of closing all eight-liner establishments in the county, of which there are a reported 200 such game rooms.

“The average eight-liner business generates thousands of dollars in revenue daily,” said District Attorney Luis V. Saenz in the release. “This is revenue known to benefit organized crime. This is revenue that doesn’t benefit our community, because it’s not being spent in our community.”

On whether the San Benito Police Department, which is participating with the DA’s office in Operation Bishop, will be targeting local game rooms in the near future, Assistant City Manager Arturo Rodriguez said, “Any future plans of doing anything I can’t give comment on because it would be investigative, and we’re working in concert with the DA Saenz’ views on the 8-liners. We’re following mandates that have been put up by Texas Attorney General’s Office decisions on what 8-liners are. San Benito is doing everything to stay in legal compliance with state law and federal law.”

“Any enforcement actions right now are being done with the cooperative leadership of the DA,” Rodriguez added.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2013/04/16/mayor-city-officials-long-sought-removing-eight-liners/

6 comments

Skip to comment form

    • WeThePeople on April 20, 2013 at 12:53 pm
    • Reply

    While this may be the case that Ray’s place was the first, it took the entire City Commission and City Manager going along with the plan! So before we throw the Mayor under the bus, take a look at the other elected majority of hypocrites there at the time. I believe the City Manager was Victor Trevino?
    Ray was also friends with Celeste, Mark Moody, Victor Garza and many other elected officials??
    RIP, Ray.

    • Good For You on April 19, 2013 at 9:00 am
    • Reply

    I find it ironic that the mayor wants to shut down 8 liners, and according to the article above, has for some time. Wasn’t he a partner with the late Ray Ramirez in one of the original 8 liners in town? Does he think we all have memory loss? What a hypocrite.

    • Royal Payne on April 18, 2013 at 6:17 pm
    • Reply

    “Well, this is something that we’ve wanted to do for quite some time already,” Hernandez said. “We’ve been getting a whole bunch of complaints. It was actually getting out of line. People (some game room owners) were not respecting the elected officials because there were signs out there that they may have $30, $40, $50 and up to $100. What does that tell you? That’s telling you that they’re paying cash.”

    This direct quote is coming from an individual who allegedly is a frequent customer patronizing these types of businesses.

    • WeThePeople on April 18, 2013 at 11:04 am
    • Reply

    Good for the Mayor! It’s about time.
    These places are nothing but front operations for organized criminal activity and money laundering. The idea that the ‘machinitas’ were played to win prizes such as caps, t- shirts or other non-monetary items is absurd!
    A figure quoted by the DA put the loss to Cameron County residents was I believe over $500,000 a year. If the State wants to legalize gambling that’s fine, but these speakeasy joints are far from being casinos.
    Legalize it, tax it appropriately, create sustainable jobs and help problem gamblers.
    By the way, according to one past machinita owner, many of these establishments use undocumented workers, and pay ‘per day’ wages, (sub minimum wage), in cash with no record of the transaction; (a violation of Federal wage / hour laws).

    • Think About It on April 17, 2013 at 9:47 am
    • Reply

    In another reported story related to this, the arcades were generating approx. $200,000.00 in revenue for the city. The obvious action to take is to continue issuing permits, collect the revenue, and let the district attorney worry about closing these places down. By the way, criminals use guns to rob stores and sometimes harm people. Using the same frame thought, maybe the city and the district attorney could initiate an operation to seize all weapons in San Benito.

    • Reform San Benito on April 16, 2013 at 8:06 pm
    • Reply

    Hernandez said, “People (some game room owners) were not respecting the elected officials because there were signs out there that they may have $30, $40, $50 and up to $100.” Hmmm…sure, that’s the reason they were not respecting “elected officials.”

    Strikes me as odd that, as many meetings as this commission has been together and as many workshops as they’ve held, this is the first time I’m hearing about the city wanting to close down 8 liners. Maybe I missed something.

    Sure would hate to think that the leniency the DA is bestowing upon our good mayor is a quid pro quo for the mayor’s help in his crusade to wipe out 8 liners in Cameron. I mean, unlike here in Cameron County, terroristic threats are viewed seriously in some part of Texas, as the link below suggests.

    http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/21969049/fmr-kaufman-county-jp-arrested-for-terroristic-threat

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.