Odessa Mayor Javier Joven announced this week he intends to once again ask council members to shut down game rooms located within the city limits.
Back in April, three justices serving in the Texas Second District Court of Appeals classified 8-liner gaming machines as “lotteries,” thus making them unconstitutional under Texas law.
The two Fort Worth game rooms at the heart of the case appealed the decision, but Joven said the court recently affirmed its decision.
Joven said he plans to meet with legal staff to discuss the recent developments and then ask for the topic to be placed on an upcoming city workshop agenda.
“My intent is to ask the city to stop the permitting of game rooms going forward. Then the second phase would be to start revoking licenses within the parameters of the law. That’s where I need to get clarification, what are those parameters?” Joven said. “I think we have a difference of opinion here. I think that we’re within our legal right to do so because they are illegal, according to the Second Court of Appeals and Texas Constitution and Texas law, penal codes. I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think the issue’s confused.”
He said he has the support of the citizens of Odessa.
“I don’t practice law in the state of Texas, but I do know this: This is a priority for people. People hate the way it makes the city look. They hate what’s going on inside them, they want to see them gone from our city.”
Joven suggested the city ought to seize 8-liner machines when the Second Court of Appeals issued its initial ruling, but the council instead opted to tighten up the city’s ordinance overseeing game rooms.
The ordinance now states new game rooms can’t operate within 1,500 feet of each other or neighborhoods, churches and schools. New game rooms can’t be located outside light or heavy industrial areas, have more than 50 machines or have door or window coverings that prevent officers from being able to see their operations from the outside. Existing game rooms have been “grandfathered” in under the old ordinance, unless they allow their business licenses to lapse, be suspended or revoked. They will also lose their grandfathered status if they change their name or begin to operate under a new owner.
Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan said Thursday that the Second Court of Appeals did not affirm their earlier decision. Instead, the court denied a motion that would have put the matter before all seven judges serving in the court.
Gallivan repeated what he said in April, the Second Court of Appeals does not set a precedent for Ector County.
The Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo ruled the exact opposite from the Second Court of Appeals in 2000 and while no one took that decision up to the Texas Supreme Court, Gallivan said he believes ultimately it will be the Texas Supreme Court that will settle the matter.
