ODESSA, Texas — Odessa City Council made some changes to the game room ordinance during their most recent meeting. An attorney representing several game rooms argued that the Odessa Police Department is not enforcing the ordinance consistently.
"We had an attorney come before us yesterday that wanted to let us know that he represented several of the game rooms, and that it seemed like they thought the Odessa Police Department was being inconsistent with their interpretation of the rules," Steven Thompson, Odessa City Council member for district 2 said.
Back in May, the city had to modify its ordinance that regulates how game rooms operate. This week, they clarified things even further.
The clarifications in the ordinance involve making sure that the windows in the game rooms weren't tinted or obstructed, and making sure that any new game rooms didn't have more than 50 machines.
"What we did last night was modified the ordinance, and to say that there could be no tint on the windows, no boards on the windows, that kind of thing," Thompson said. "We also modified the ordinance to say that those people who had more than 50 machines prior to May 1, 2022 could keep those machines."
As of May, OPD can conduct a check at any game room at any time. If any are not in compliance with the city's ordinance, OPD can issue the game room a citation.
"There are citations issued for not having the registration number on the machine in the proper place, and we delineated that for everybody for having tint on the windows," Thompson said. "All kinds of things like that, they could be cited for that."
Thompson said it is all being done in an effort to clean up some of the unsavory sides to this type of business.
"The attorney asked why we’re making these changes now," Thompson said. "I tried to explain that people don’t like them, and there’s a lot of them and a lot of our citizens don’t like them."