Pending final approval, city officials will ring in the new year with a definitive message to business owners. Game rooms are no longer welcome — or legally permitted — in Fort Worth.
City Council members will vote on the last step to formally ban the use of game machines typically found in gas stations and convenience stores across the city during their Dec. 10 meeting.
The impending ban marks the end of a decade-long effort by city leadership to respond to residents’ concerns about the use of game rooms, which are commonly believed to attract crime, said Assistant City Attorney Chris Mosley.
“This is really a prime example of a citizenry-directed action,” Mosley told the Report.
“The citizenry came out and demanded that we do something about game rooms.”
Interest in banning game rooms from Fort Worth dates back to 2014, when City Council members at the time adopted two ordinances to essentially restrict game rooms to areas zoned for industrial use, with the added caveat that they must be at least 1,000 feet from a school, place of worship or residential area. City officials maintain the ordinances came in response to an outpouring of resident complaints about game machines bringing crime to their neighborhoods.
“They are a magnet for criminal activity, so removal of them from places that have them will reduce the crime in those locations,” Mosley said. “Wherever there were eight-liners, there seemed to be, according to the citizenry, crimes like prostitution, obviously gambling, and just some, some bad things. We took that very seriously.”
What are game rooms?
Game rooms, or stores that feature six or more game machines, are found in gas stations and convenience stores across the city. The game machines are commonly referred to as eight-liners.
Mosley said to think of the machines as “games of chance” rather than “games of skill,” such as those found at Chuck E. Cheese restaurants.
850-plus businesses impacted by ban
The ban stands to impact hundreds of businesses across the city. Officials have documented more than 850 addresses that have game rooms on the property, according to data provided by the city’s Development Services Department.
Jesse Seyam, a manager at Discount Food Store on Riverside Drive, believes city officials have made the wrong decision in choosing to ban game rooms. The ban will hurt small businesses like the one where he works, he said.
“I don’t know what to say. It’s wrong,” Seyam said.
Seyam acknowledged concerns about crime, but he believes the most game room-related crime happens at 24-hour convenience stores. Discount Food is open from 7 a.m. to midnight daily, except for Saturday, when it stays open until 1 a.m.
One way his store keeps crime down is by not accepting cash to use its game machines, Seyam said, adding that many people leave when they see that rule.
Discount Food Store, which Seyam said is about 9 years old, sees 10-15 patrons use its game machines daily. Those customers drive business to the small store, he said. Without the ability to offer game machines, he fears his business may have to close.
Mosley noted that the new ban will impact every game machine across the city, and the regulations do not include grandfathering machines that are already permitted.
“We can’t really regulate an unconstitutional activity,” Mosley said. “Our position in this case was that these eight-liners are unconstitutional lotteries, and the court agreed with that.”
After the regulations adopted in 2014 took effect in January 2015, game room owners promptly filed lawsuits against the city. Plaintiffs argued that game machines, or eight-liners, are legal in Texas under what’s known as the “fuzzy animal” exception, which allows operators to award noncash prizes that are worth less than $5, according to Texas state law.
“We were pretty much immediately sued,” Assistant City Manager Dana Burghdoff, who was assistant director of planning and development services at the time, said.
Seven years later, in March 2022, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals ruled that eight-liner machines were not exempt from regulation under the “fuzzy animal” exception because they are considered “lotteries,” or games of chance. Operators involved in the lawsuit requested the Texas Supreme Court’s input on the ruling, which it denied in December 2023. Plaintiffs requested a rehearing on the denial. That request was denied in June of this year.
Game rooms have 45 days to move machines out
Over the course of the 10-year legal battle, the city has paid $608,000 in legal fees, Mosley said. Mosley noted that city officials were willing to pay that much to legally defend the city because of how important it was to respond to citizen complaints and tamp down game room-related crime.
After the Texas Supreme Court denied any further review of the case this summer, city officials began taking the needed steps to ultimately outlaw game rooms. Those actions included the city attorney’s office briefing council members Oct. 8 on the needed changes, and then council members voting to amend city code Oct. 15. The Dec. 10 vote to change zoning regulations is the final step.
After council approves the zoning amendment Dec. 10, staff in the city’s Development Services Department will mail a notice of the changes to business owners documented as operating game machines, Burghdoff said. The city will give business owners 45 calendar days to remove the machines from their stores, with the final deadline of Jan. 21, 2025.
Mosley said enforcement of the regulations could vary depending on the way different business owners operate game machines. Historically, businesses that operate game machines as their primary service have been hard to regulate, Mosley said. He anticipates those businesses being unwilling to comply with the ban.
Most gas stations or convenience stores with six or fewer game machines should be easier to monitor and, if needed, penalize, Mosley said.
Failure to comply with the ban will result in operators getting ticketed and fined by the city, Mosley said. For harder cases, the city is already coordinating with the Tarrant County district attorney’s office to prosecute owners as needed.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org or @bycecilialenzen.
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