Update: Cash Payouts In Underground Casinos Throughout Texas

Underground casinos in Texas become worse.

Owning, operating, and playing on slot machines in Texas is perfectly legal, as long as you are not getting your winnings in cash. Typically, to run a legal casino in Texas the prizes you win have to be material items with low monetary value. This, however, does not stop residents of Texas from visiting “speakeasy” type casinos. These underground casinos are found inside many old business buildings that have no windows and are composed of small rooms with about 75 slot machines inside. These slot machines are known as eight liners, because that is the amount of lines that need to be matched up for the player to win. Businesses like old tire shops, karate schools, and car dealerships are most likely to be used as these types of casinos.

Despite the laws that are made against cash casinos, these gambling rooms are still being operated throughout the whole state of Texas. Some gambling room operators have even taken to paying off authority officials like police to avoid being raided in the future, meaning that there is most likely good money being made in these illegal gambling rooms. These gambling rooms have been become so common in the state of Texas, which has been publicly keeping casinos out, because of the lack of supervision by local and state authorities, making it easier for these illegal gambling rooms to strive. According to the Texas Lottery Commission, which runs the state approved lottery, there are between 30,000 and 150,000 illegal slot machines within the state that make an estimated 1.9 billion dollars in annual revenue. Some of the slot machines authorities have found during raids have official state tax decals on them, meaning the Texas comptroller’s office collects about 10 million dollars annually from these slot machines, pool tables and other coin operated games as part of a coin operated machines tax. State officials state that it is up to local authorities to patrol these casinos, since the state has no idea which gambling room operators are making cash payouts.

While not all forms of gambling is illegal in the state of Texas, operating a cash prize gambling room is. This does not stop local gambling room operators from giving the residents of Texas a way to have a good time, and likely will not slow them down in the future.