Less than a month after Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz justified selling some 505 eight-liners (maquinitas) citing the prohibitive cost of destroying them as he had promised, the City of Brownsville announced that it had recycled 2,500 pounds electronics for free.Rose Timmer, Director of of Healthy Communities of Brownsville, also said that last October the city also recycled some 3,000 pounds of discarded electronics.
"The cost of disposal was more than the value of the machines, Saenz told local bloggers.
In fact, Timmer said, the city provided the service free of charge.Saenz said that after the Brownsville Police asked that he vacate some space in a building at the Brownsville-South Padre Island Airport, he found out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had advised him that the eight-liners contained mercury that could seep into the groundwater if they were rolled destroyed as Saenz said he planned to do.
“In the past, the places would be raided, the machines would be taken up and then resold back only to have them put back into practice or use in the matter of hours,” Saenz said during a press conference back in April 2013. “This time the machines will not be resold. They will be forfeited.”
Before moving to recycling, the city, on May 2005, had destroyed 30 video gambling machines on Tuesday as a part of a new strategy to reduce illegal gambling in the area.
Undercover police said then that they had shut down at least a dozen video casinos over the last three years for making illegal payouts, but investigators realized they had confiscated many of the same machines before.
After seizure, some machines have been sold at auctions or returned to the owners, said Sgt. Adrian Mascorro with the Police Departments Special Investigation Unit.Destroying the machines is the best way to guarantee they are not used again, and also makes it more expensive for illegal video gamblers to restart their businesses, he told the local newspaper back in 2005.
Mascorro said the toxic electronic parts were salvaged from the machines before the casings were destroyed in compliance with state environmental laws. In other words, recycled.Computers and other electronics contain similar (if not virtually identical) electronic components as do eight-liners and other gambling devices. However, that seems to have escaped the notice of the DA's Office even though the departments' public information officer Melissa Landin was a city commissioner when an EPA study in 2012 indicated a need for recycling typewriters, computer towers, mother boards, towers and the like.
Instead, Saenz signed on the dotted line to accept $100,000 from Lowkes International for 400 eight-liners with an option to sell another 105 if the sale went through. That sum went into the department's Forfeiture Fund and Saenz claims it has not been touched.
Later, other sources indicated that some of the same machines had ended up in Starr County and may be operating surreptitiously in illegal gambling operations there and elsewhere in South Texas.In fact, after a lull in the action, local law enforcement entities including the Cameron County Sheriff's Dept. have carried out raids here and their respective entities in Willacy and Hidalgo counties.
This may be an unwinnable war for the DA's Office since residents of Cameron, Willacy and counties are said to be traveling to those areas to play the games.
For example, the Sullivan City Commission unanimously approved regulations and a permitting system for "electronic amusement devices" — commonly called eight-liners or maquinitas — recently.
Sullivan City sells the permits which cost $3,000 each, said City Manager Judy Davila. Along with the permit payment, Sullivan City will collect $1,000 per machine every quarter.
A newspaper report indicates that operators there with a permit may operate a maximum 100 machines, meaning a maxxed-out game room would pay the city $400,000 annually.
It’s unclear how a legal eight-liner operation would make a profit after paying city a $3,000 permit fee, a $1,000 fee per machine every quarter and a $500 monthly fee.Texas law forbids eight-liners from paying out cash to players and limits prizes to items worth $5 or less, according to the Texas Municipal League. Prosecutors say that many South Texas game rooms have blatantly broken the law.
"Right now, with the way it is in Rio Grande, we've seen a lot of traffic," police Chief Miguel Martinez told the Valley Morning Star, referencing the cars that speed through Sullivan City on the way to game rooms in Rio Grande City.
Martinez said police have talked to drivers from all over the Rio Grande Valley who travel to Starr County to play eight-liners.
"They've been coming all the way from Edcouch, Elsa,” Martinez said, adding that police stop many who don’t obey the speed limit. "They come from San Benito. Even from McAllen."
3 comments:
Let it go, let it goooo. Those 8 liners are not recyclable. The county made some money the problem is how was the money dispursed?
Do NOT let it go, Juan. Keep harping until the AG or FBI pick up this case. The actions by this DA is so blatantly dishonest and unethical it cannot be overlooked and needs to be punished.
Telling the public he could not destroy the machines because they contain mercury sounds good to the unenlightened. What Saenz fails to tell the public is that the parts containing mercury inside these machines, if removed from all 505 re-sold machines, would probably only fill one 55-gallon drum, or less. It probably would have taken one technician less than two-weeks to remove these parts. The rest of the machines could have been destroyed as he told the public they would be.
The way this entire situation was handled is wrong on so many levels. It's almost like he took sales orders prior to the raids from the people who eventually purchased them from his office. Who's to say he didn't cut a deal with Masso after defeating him in the primary in exchange for Masso's support in the general election? A case could be made that way.
Do keep at it, Juan. Keep it up until a higher authority holds him accountable. At the very least, keep exposing this guy until the voters realize he's the very same crook Villalobos was and vote him out of office. Keep it up, Juan! You're doing a fine job!
at 4:58 PM. Mellissa You would Love nothing more for Elrrun to let the 8 liner scam issue go. Luis Saenz LIED and DECEIVED the public to make money to give you a RAISE. There is people in the County that need streets and FOOD while the DA is taking his Favorites inside the DA to lunch, dinner and false seminars to keep the forfeiture fund.
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