BEAUMONT — Eight-liner gaming machines aren’t just a challenge for municipalities. They’re also in unincorporated areas of Jefferson County.

So much so, the Jefferson County Commissioners Court approved a resolution for the regulation of game rooms at their regular meeting Monday afternoon.

The resolution read the Texas Legislature granted some counties legislative authority to regulate game rooms. Jefferson County, however, does not currently qualify as a county with authority to regulate game rooms. Many counties in close proximity to Jefferson County — Harris County, Fort Bend County, Brazoria County, Galveston County, Montgomery County and Chambers County — do qualify under the statute.

Illegal game rooms move across county lines away from counties that are regulating them to unregulated areas.

“Illegal game room operations in Jefferson County have dramatically increased since 2015 when the Legislature amended the statute to allow most counties adjacent to Harris County to regulate game rooms,” it read.

It further read unregulated game rooms in the unincorporated areas of Jefferson County violate state gambling laws, generally operate behind locked doors and are not open to the public, generate large amount of income that are not taxed, and are epicenters for many other criminal activities including, but not limited to capital murder, armed robbery, prostitution, other personal and property crimes, weapon offenses, illicit drug use and drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, organized crime and public corruption.

The Beaumont Police Department statistics for the period of Jan. 24, 2017 through Jan. 24, 2018 shows there were 3,494 total 911 calls for service to the immediate area of game rooms and 1,210 911 calls for service were for received for the location of the actual known game rooms.

The Beaumont Fire Department responded to 133 calls for service at known game rooms, and three of these 133 were arson cases. The Beaumont Police Department found the establishment does not report most crimes at these facilities but victims report the crimes at a later date.

Unregulated game rooms, operated illegally, constitute public and private nuisances that adversely impact surrounding property owners and occupants, and the community as a whole, critics charge.

To circumvent undercover investigations, operators of these illegal game rooms have changed their business models by restricting access to allow only members or known referrals, thereby preventing law enforcement agencies from gaining access to shut down illegal activities.

“Jefferson County desires to reduce the adverse secondary effects of illicit game rooms and find it is in the best interest of and for the protection of Jefferson County citizens that game room activity be strictly regulated that such game room operators be required to secure a permit to conduct business within the unincorporated areas of Jefferson County; and that Jefferson County be authorized to pursue violators both civilly and criminally,” the resolution stated.

The resolution concluded the commissioners court urges all state elected officials to consider specific legislation to amend Local Government Code Section 234 to extend legislative authority to Jefferson County to regulate game rooms.