BEAUMONT, Texas — The Beaumont City Council has took action to crack down on game rooms in the city as part of an effort to improve public safety and reduce the financial burden of taxpayers.
On Tuesday, city council unanimously voted to change the city's ordinance to increase oversight on game rooms and their operators. The existing ordinance has been on the books for about a decade.
Beaumont is home to about 83 gaming sites according to Beaumont Assistant City Manager Christopher Boone.
Hundreds of fire and police calls for service at these game rooms are costing the city and taxpayers $600,000 every year, according to The Department of Planning and Community Development.
"We've identified some issues in enforcing, not least of which there's a high cost to the city to enforce the codes," said Boone.
Boone proposed the amendments aimed at forcing game rooms to be more accountable in terms of costs and public safety.
"We do feel like we've gotten a lot more game rooms locating here just because our ordinance. The application fees have been low. The restrictions are not as strict as some cities. So we're just really trying to be a little more comparable to other cities in our area," Boone said.
In August several game rooms in Orange County were raided by the sheriff's office.
Detective Colton Havard told 12News at the time that the facilities bring a lot of crime.
"We see drugs come in and out, and prostitution, money laundering but also burglaries and thefts. You know a lot of these people don't have a jobs, when they go to these game rooms and they want to feed that habit," Havard previously said.
This is a breakdown of what Beaumont's City Council has voted on:
- banning game room memberships
- significantly raising application fees
- revising hours of operation
- requiring unobstructed windows and surveillance cameras
- creating new zoning rules
"We are asking that they be 600 feet away from a house of worship, a school, a daycare, a hospital as well as residential zones. But again, to try to limit the negative impacts of those neighborhoods," said Boone.
The Department of Planning and Community Development is confident that these amendments will reduce crime and save the city money.
"The consideration for the fire code, the consideration for public safety in terms of video cameras and basically knowing where they are. So public safety is first and foremost behind why what we're doing. Secondarily, we're trying to cover our costs,' Boone said.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.