POOR STARR NOW THE DUMPING GROUND FOR EIGHT-LINERS

By Juan Montoya
People who visit us from northern states are often struck by the profusion of certain businesses along the Mexico-U.S. border.
Why are there so many second-hand stores here?, they ask.
"And why so many pawn shops and used tire repair places?," they inquire.
Last year, before the Cameron County District Attorney's Office announced the launching of Operation Bishop, the guests would often comment on the large number of eight-liner arcades and "maquinita" joints dotting the city.
Some who were from locales that were near Indian-run casinos would ask why there were so many around when you couldn't get paid more than $5 prizes.
"Why don;t they just make it legal and get it over with?," they asked.
Well, the eight-liner games and the arcades are legal under Texas law, we would explain, but the payment of cash prizes of more than $5 was not. In time, DA Luis Saenz made the participation of his opponent Carlos Masso and his relatives in eight-liner gaming operations his main campaign issue and eked out a narrow win in a tight race.
Standing at the steps of the county courthouse and surrounded by elected officials and representatives of law enforcement agencies participating in Operation Bishop, he vowed to stamp out the industry claiming it fostered crime, money laundering, bribing of public officials, and preyed upon the poor who spent their money on the maquinitas instead of using them for something more beneficial.
The members of the different agencies – the DA's Office, Cameron County Sheriff's Dept., county constables, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Texas Rangers, and police from the Brownsville, Harlingen and San Benito police departments – listened as Saenz vowed not to do what his predecessor Armando Villalobos had done.
"The machines will no longer be recirculated back into the public," Saenz said.
Instead, he said that the machines would be confiscated and that forfeiture proceedings would be undertaken and the machines would be destroyed.
Then the rumors began circulating that Saenz had, indeed, authorized the sale of eight-liner machines and that some of them had been sold to buyers in Starr County up the Rio Grande. Hidalgo and Willacy counties all followed Saenz's lead and passed prohibitions against the operations.
The sale of 500 machines has already been documented, but if various sources are correct, there may have been more. This, in itself is not illegal. In fact, Villalobos auctioned the ones his investigators confiscated, even though some critics say the machines returned to their original owners in a circuitous way.
Some of these machines sold by Saenz are said to have ended up in gaming arcades in Starr County just west of the Hidalgo County line.
In an interview granted by the DA, Saenz said that the Bishop Daniel Flores had complained to Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos that church bingo fundraiser operations at the Catholic churches were being hurt by the proliferation of eight-liners in the county and sought help to eradicate them, therefore Operation Bishop.
There is precious little industry in Starr County, and it has now been declared the poorest county in all of Texas. It is a hardscrabble, desolate wasteland of cactus, mesquite and hard sand.
Did DA Saenz and Bishop Flores figure that with so little opportunities available the residents there, they can probably afford to put up with the ravages of crime, money laundering, bribing of public officials, and being preyed upon by the eight-liner operators who used the machines in Cameron County?