So operators look for creative ways to get around the law. You can offer eight liners for entertainment purposes, but you can’t award any prize worth more than $5.

“You have to pay cash to these folks to encourage them to come back, that allows you to stay in business,” Saenz says.īut in Texas, paying cash is illegal. Saenz, the problem isn’t just that they bring noise and crime into quiet neighborhoods. They’re so close to family homes.”īut, according to Cameron County District Attorney Luis V.

And some people, they’re out there ‘till midnight, one in the morning. “In some occasions there was fights at those eight liners. “To me they’re not pleasant,” Cardenas says. It’s the same scene up and down Business 77, not just at the Silver Star, but also at the El Toro, the Great Eagle, and the one Elida Cardenas lives near, the Sizzling 7s. I burn through the cash in about three minutes, then watch the other customers – most of whom are elderly - feed bill after bill into the machines. I get 10 $1 bills from an employee sitting in a clear plastic booth on the far wall, and sit down at one of the machines. They look like old arcade games, but they’re actually electronic gambling machines called eight liners: video slot machines like what you’d find at a full-blown casino. The only light comes from a small heating lamp at the snack bar, and from the dozens of screens that sit along its walls. There’s a sign on each wall that says “NO CASH PAYOUTS.” Inside, it’s a single rectangular room with a low ceiling imbued with the smell of cigarettes. A blinking neon arrow points to a converted trailer on Business 77. It’s a Friday night in the tiny south Texas community of Sebastian, and the gravel parking lot in front of the Silver Star game room is packed. It’s a headache for law enforcement, but a remedy could be on the way. It cuts through a rural area of the Rio Grande Valley, but bares a passing resemblance to Las Vegas. But you’d never know it driving down Business 77 in Willacy County. In Texas, gambling is illegal in almost all forms.

Texas vfw gambling laws