PRESIDIO — The City of Presidio is continuing to draft an ordinance that would institute official fees and regulations for the city’s game rooms. At this week’s City Council meeting, officials decided to institute a $1,000 permit fee for each machine in the rooms — a move that elicited protests from one local game room operator, who insists such fees are punitive and would hurt her legal business. 

There are currently two game rooms open within city limits, but widespread crackdowns in the Permian Basin have left city officials wondering if more could set up shop on the border. Amidst pushback, officials have been working to solidify an ordinance aimed towards stricter oversight of the businesses, though no such ordinance has been passed after months of deliberation.

Game rooms offer slot machine-style gaming and other diversions intended to simulate gambling. Gambling is officially illegal in the state of Texas, but game rooms operate within the bounds of the law by not offering cash prizes on site. 

In bigger Texas cities, some government officials have started to associate game rooms with an uptick in crimes such as prostitution, armed robbery and DUIs. The City of Odessa recently opted to not renew game room licenses, effectively banning the businesses after December 2022. 

The City of Alpine currently has four game rooms, and the City of Presidio has looked to their ordinance for guidance — with a few exceptions. Alpine put a cap on the number of establishments, but Presidio’s counsel advised that that might not be the best way of culling their numbers. “If it’s a legal business, then why would we limit the number of legal businesses?” wondered City Administrator Pablo Rodriguez.

The city ultimately decided to model the text of their ordinance on the text of a game room ordinance in Dilley, Texas — in Rodriguez’s words, a “little bitty town” with 10 game rooms. 

At the City Council meeting on March 21, game room owner Flor Montoya passionately defended her business and decried the new requirements. In the proposed ordinance, she would need to pay $1,000 a year per machine — after years of not paying for permits in Presidio at all. “It’s way steep,” she said.

She said that her business had a right to exist just as any other legal business and that she provided an important entertainment outlet for the community. Her chief contribution: providing a public place to have fun that isn’t a bar. “It’s a place to have fun, have friends and get a lot of stress out,” she said. 

Montoya also owns a game room in Fort Stockton — she had previously owned one in Odessa as well before their city council voted not to renew any permits. She believed that the rules in Fort Stockton were much more lenient. 

Councilmember Nancy Arevalo said that the introduction of fees and regulations were an attempt to generate money for the city — money perhaps needed much more urgently in Presidio than cities in the oil-rich Permian Basin. “We need money,” she said. “But you’ve opened our eyes and we need to think about this.”

Council considered lowering the fees and ultimately stuck to their guns. At Tuesday’s meeting, they decided not to scrap language detailing a $1,000 per year per machine fee, and considered designing a pay schedule to increase fees for owners with higher numbers of machines. 

City Secretary Brenda Lee Ornelas-Acuña chimed in to discussion to voice her support for the fees — she pointed out that the only money the city takes in from the game rooms currently is the water and waste services all Presidians pay for. “If these game rooms weren’t making money they wouldn’t be here,” she said. “I don’t understand why Presidio would have to be different.”

Councilmember Arian Velásquez-Ornelas agreed — especially as Presidio’s economy grows. “We’re trying to generate something for the future,” she said