Following the city of Beaumont’s ban on 8-liner “accessory” gaming machines last fall, several locations shut down. Others, however, appear to be operating under what they believe are legal loopholes and, in some cases, machines have been added where none existed before.
The city’s ordinance change was not a minor adjustment. July 29, 2025, Beaumont City Council voted to amend Article 6 of the City’s Code of Ordinances, effectively banning gaming machines within the city. Affirmed twice before taking effect, the ordinance adjustment allowed for properties already containing gaming machines 90 days of after Aug. 5, 2025, to cease gaming operations within city limits.
Article 6.10.002 was updated to state “Gaming Prohibited” and specifically that “amusement redemption machines, accessory gaming, gaming machines and game rooms are hereby prohibited from being operated within the city limits of the city.”
Despite that effort, machines newly labeled as “games of skill” are operating openly across Beaumont, a nod to Texas allowing skill games to operate in the state. However, the Beaumont city ordinance offered no exception; instead, city council voted to ban all gaming machines, per ordinance wording. Now, a reported crime has now occurred involving at least one business still operating accessory game play.
Morris Laundry on Lucas Drive added gaming machines “just a few months ago,” according to their staff. Surveillance footage from the local laundromat exemplified what officials warn of neighborhood businesses harboring “casino-style” gaming in a state where gambling is illegal: ancillary neighborhood crime. As shown in footage now in the hands of Beaumont Police Department (BPD) officers, Feb. 12 around 10 a.m., four men entered Morris Laundry, surrounded the gaming machines, opened a machine and removed a stack of cash. The suspect then closed the machine and walked away calmly while customers and their children were busy inside washing their clothes.
The Examiner visited Morris Laundry on Avenue A, and owner Erica Morris, on Feb. 25. According to Morris, BPD was investigating the theft, but, referring to the legality of her own operation, “I guess they are trying to decide if the machines are a game of skill or chance.”
At the 3670 E. Lucas Dr. location where the Feb. 12 burglary occurred, a Morris Laundry employee said the machines were off — for now, while “they (Beaumont police) are trying to decide if they are legal and if they are going to seize the machines.”
The Examiner reached out to BPD for information regarding the case, as well as the legality of the gaming machines popping up all over Beaumont.
“The burglary of a coin operated machine case was being investigated by a detective assigned to the Beaumont Police Department Property Crimes Unit. However, since the social media posting of the incident, the victim has now withdrawn the charges due to concern for retaliation and their safety,” said BPD Sgt. Haley Morrow.
“Spotless, safe, and designed to make laundry easy,” Morris Laundry boasts in their advertising. Safety was cited by city council, too, with it named the primary reason to ban gaming in Beaumont in 2025. Council members themselves acknowledge the disconnect between the ordinance to ban gaming and what is happening throughout the city.
“Yesterday, I walked into a gas station and there are still machines — I was going to look into that,” Council member At-large Mike Williams told The Examiner on Feb. 25. “It almost seems like, by banning them, we just essentially said ‘Okay, we’re not going to enforce it anymore,’ and now it’s just the wild west and they can do whatever they want.”
“If we’re going to ban them, we have to enforce and make sure they are following the letter of the law,” Williams said. “If someone from the city would have said, ‘Hey, whenever you ban this, we’re not going to look into anything anymore,’ I think we all would have thought twice about banning them.”
On Dec. 29, 2025, The Examiner reached out to Tracy Kennick, director of communications for the city of Beaumont, to report the existence of new machines at several locations throughout the city, paying cash, and labeled “game of skill.” Kennick said she would seek an answer to whether the machines were in compliance with local ordinance, and forward the new knowledge to BPD, the fire department, and Demi Engman, director of Planning and Community Development.
According to Engman, her department is no longer involved with gaming as there are no permits to process for it, and any enforcement of illegal gambling or citations issued for 8-liners being present is deferred to the Beaumont Police Department.
“The state of Texas has not given cities the authority to regulate games of skill; only 8-liners,” said Engman.
To the naked eye, the difference is none — customers simply insert cash, push a button, and wait to see the outcome.
Following Engman’s deference to BPD, The Examiner submitted an open records request to the city of Beaumont on Dec. 30, 2025, inquiring as to follow-up on compliance of game rooms and gaming locations within the city and any citations or fines that may have been issued in association with noncompliance with the Article 6 ban on 8-liner gaming machines.
The same day, The Examiner requested information from BPD Public Information Officer Cesar Beattie, asking if the police department had received any calls or issued citations since November.
“For citation information, you would have to submit an open records request. For a comment or more information, you would have to contact city hall. We have reasonable information on this topic. Any information on this topic would have to come from the city PIO (Kennick),” Beattie replied.
Jan. 12, the city of Beaumont marked the request completed and indicated “no responsive documents.”
At minimum, the city would have record of Kennick’s written commitment to “relay those sites to BPD and Fire.” Yet, the open records response reflected no documentation of reports, inspections, citations, compliance checks, or enforcement actions connected to the ban during that time.
Meanwhile, machines remain in operation across town.
At Cherry Station, 1595 North Major Dr., a man sat playing two machines at once Dec. 29, 2025, when The Examiner stopped in.
“Yeah, these are new ones; it’s give and take,” said the man with his arms stretched wide to double his chances (or “skill,” the slot machine signage reads). The local games, he agreed, “seem just like the ones at Golden Nugget.”
Across town at MLK Fuel (Valero) at 1481 I-10 Frontage Rd., a customer slid a stack of ones into the machine and was approached by the worker.
“You just get your ticket when you are done, but the machine to cash out is broken – it should be fixed tomorrow but if you give me your phone number, I will call you when it’s fixed,” the worker said.
At press time, the three gaming machines identified as “games of skill” by Morris Laundry remained onsite and unplugged, as well as the games’ corresponding Cashio machine – “a versatile, flexible system with all the features needed to support casino operators at every level – right up to cashless gaming,” the product description entails.
Upon contacting the Cashio machine operator as the sign on the machine indicates, The Examiner was told to text payout tickets and that the owner would “take care of you.”
When asked whether Morris Laundry was breaking the law by having the games in place, Sgt. Morrow replied, “The Beaumont Police Department’s Narcotics & Vice Unit handles criminal investigations related to gambling offenses when appropriate, particularly when complaints are received or investigations identify potential violations.”
Assistant City Manager of Community Services Chris Boone said that, while The Examiner’s request for public information did not come across his desk prior to the city responding that there were no responsive documents related to the request, a discussion was recently held regarding the topic. According to Boone, enforcement of the ordinance now lies with public safety, “fire marshal’s office, maybe some PD.”
Boone said that “games of skill” do not fall under traditional 8-liner “games of chance,” and his understanding is that games of chance can be regulated, but games of skill cannot. When told that machines self-identifying as “game of skill” have been seen being added all over town, Boone said: “Just saying it is XYZ does not make it XYZ” but that he himself cannot make a legal determination as to whether they are truly games of skill or chance – “the lines get blurry.”
Boone never indicated whether he or any staff actually went to look at the games to determine that they are, in fact, a game of skill.
Boone said that, “Because of the number of machines locally and each had to be licensed, tagged, etc,” permitting and enforcement was a full-time position, yet a reduction in staff was not necessary. While Building Codes Permit Manager Lindsey Gilbreath, who Boone said has been with the city around 20 years, was primarily in charge of monitoring the compliance of the machines prior to the change of ordinance, she also had help of several departments and has now shifted back to permitting and project management. In short, even without permit fees covering the salary, the city will still employ the same staff.
“We now have a hotel tax we are collecting for short-term rentals and she is also helping out with that,” said Boone.
Despite the time, debate and formal action taken by the Beaumont City Council to ban 8-liner gaming machines, the city has not acknowledged any attempt to verify whether the machines now operating under the label “game of skill” are, in fact, compliant with the ordinance. Numerous conversations with multiple city of Beaumont officials, as well as BPD, did not indicate an active effort to determine compliance — even as another crime has now occurred surrounding one of the very machines the council intended to eliminate.