Council to vote on banning eight-liners in city

By BRAD KELLAR
Herald-Banner Staff

GREENVILLE October 12, 2008 01:23 am

— They look like slot machines and they play like slot machines.
While the operation of commercial slot machines for gambling purposes is prohibited in Texas, the devices known as “eight-liners” can be found at game rooms across the state. They are not necessarily illegal. It all depends on how they are played.
Regardless, officials with the City of Greenville do not want them inside the city limits. The City Council is scheduled Tuesday to vote on a one-year moratorium on eight-liners. The vote is included under the agenda for the regular session, starting at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building, 2821 Washington Street. A work session is also scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday.
In 2003, the Council instituted a six-month moratorium on eight-liners in Greenville, allowing time for the consideration of zoning regulations and other issues designed to restrict where the arcades featuring eight-liners could locate.
The move came following several raids and prosecutions against those game rooms which were operating the devices illegally, which resulted in the virtual elimination of eight-liners from Greenville.
Eight-liners in and of themselves are not illegal. While gambling in Texas is prohibited, with the exception of horse racing and the state lottery, there is also an exception for games which award non-cash prizes to winners, as long as the prize value does not exceed $5, or 10 times the cost of a single play on the device, whichever is less.
City Attorney Brent A. Money, in a memo to the Council, said the city’s staff has become aware of the recent return of eight-liners in Greenville.
“At this time, city staff has no evidence that the eight-liners with the city are operating illegally,” Money wrote.
Still, Money is asking the Council to approve the moratorium, to allow time to develop a plan to regulate the devices and game rooms inside the city limits.
While some of the game rooms which have operated outside the city limits have been the source of alleged illegal gambling, they also have been the locations of violent crimes.
Thursday morning, a game room along State Highway 276 between Quinlan and West Tawakoni was the scene of a reported armed robbery and the murder of the owner of the business, with a former employee taken into custody.
In the summer of 2004, authorities from Hunt, Kaufman, Rains and Van Zandt counties, as well as police officials from the cities of Kaufman and Terrell, joined forces to solve more than a half-dozen armed hold-ups of area eight-liner game rooms.
Earlier this month, a charge of aggravated robbery was dropped against a Denton County man who had been alleged to have held an employee of another game room along Highway 276 at gunpoint.
In April 2006, law enforcement agencies conducted raids on game rooms across Hunt County seizing approximately 300 hundred machines. No eight-liners were found in Greenville, although 90 machines were seized in Commerce, where three locations were closed down. Approximately 10 people were arrested overall and were charged with possession of gambling equipment and paraphernalia.