ORANGE COUNTY, Texas — Orange County leaders say it's time for the people who operate illegal game rooms to follow their new policies or pay the price.
Law enforcement officials said our proximity to Louisiana, where gambling is legal, only adds to the confusion.
According to Orange County officials, some of the owners of these game rooms make between $100,000 to $130,000 per day.
Investigators said most of that money comes in illegally.
Operators could end up "paying for playing" if their game rooms are illegal, officials said.
“Time is on our side and their time is running out, so we're going to eventually catch them,” said Orange County Constable Matt Ortego.
Ortego calls it a cat and mouse game, one that's expanding outside of the region.
“It's all across the state,” Ortego said. "It's not just here in Orange County, you know, what they're doing is they're running and jumping in all these different counties that don't have ordinances that are in place.
Judge John Gothia said they eventually had to put their foot down.
“For our county, it was getting out of hand and that's why we implemented new restrictions that went into effect,” Gothia said.
Orange County is following the lead of Jefferson County, which has new ordinances and ongoing enforcement.
On Thursday, Port Arthur Police arrested two women accused of illegal gambling promotion.
RELATED: 2 women arrested, accused of illegal gambling promotion in Port Arthur
Ortego said in Orange County, the rules are clear.
“Not allowed to have blinds up tinted windows, like I said, they cannot have the cages,” Ortego said.
And if you have more than six game machines, you need a permit.
“Our goal was to never shut down a business that's legally operating like it's supposed to,” Ortego said.
Ortego said illegal gambling often leads to other crimes.
“You're seeing prostitution,” Ortego said. “You're seeing you know, tracking human trafficking, narcotics being, you know, exchanged inside of there, outside of there.”
In the end, Gothia said these regulations are solely to keep everyone safe.
“It was. It's to protect the citizens and protect the people you know that they use those establishments,” Gothia said.
New regulations took place on September 1. Two Orange County game rooms were temporarily shut down for not following the new ordinance, and seven others remain on their radar.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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