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Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre said he wants use a little-known state law to regulate and tax 8-liners and other video gambling machines.
Authorities estimate that after a recent anti-gambling crusade, there are only 15 casinos left in Cameron County and 6,000 to 8,000 unregulated video gambling machines.
Under state law, Texas counties are allowed to levy an occupancy tax on coin-operated machines such as 8-liners and other video gambling machines up to $15 a year for each machine.
In his proposed fiscal year 2007 budget, Yzaguirre is asking county commissioners to approve creating a $70,000-a-year position to hire a code enforcement officer to give each machine a serial number and document their location.
At $15 a machine, Yzaguirre believes regulation could generate between $90,000 to $120,000 per year.
“The whole idea behind this is for proper documentation ... accountability,” Yzaguirre said. “We’re not going to be looking at if the machines are being used illegally. That’s not going to be our function. That’s somebody else’s function. Our function is going to be accountable of machines in Cameron County, their serial numbers and who owns the machines.”
Yzaguirre said state records show there are 2,342 gambling machines registered in Cameron County, but nobody knows where they are.
Although Brownsville and San Benito permit and tax video gambling machines, the rest of county is open to a business that alleg-edly “does not pay their fair share back to the community.”
“My proposal is not that they’re being used illegally, but that they’re not paying their taxes,” he said. “They’re not paying the oc-cupation tax, and they’re not paying their personal property taxes. The county auditor indicated there are roughly $8 million worth of value that has not been picked up and why? Because there is no accountability on these machines.”
Yzaguirre’s proposal has received letters of support from District Attorney Armando Villalobos and Sheriff Omar Lucio, but Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa said he remains reluctant to approve the proposal.
Hinojosa said if the commission were to approve the tax, it would have to be applied to all coin-operated machines from pool ta-bles to cigarette vending machines.
“I’ve got a problem with adding another expense to these vendors out there trying to support their families simply to generate enough money to enforce these video game operations,” Hinojosa said of the tax. “I know that it’s something they could use to en-force state law, but I don’t think it (the tax) should be paid for that.”
Brownsville attorney Ed Cyganiewicz said he represented Lucky Spin owner Elwyn Leroy Herman and won a misdemeanor ille-gal gambling case against him last June.
A jury acquitted Herman, but Cyganiewicz said casinos like the Lucky Spin are already regulated.
“The last thing they need is another tax and permit from another entity,” Cyganiewicz said. “What’s the need for another permit process? There’s enough laws to go after gambling right now ... just enforce them,”
The issue is expected to be settled during the county commission’s July 25 budget hearing.
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