FLORESVILLE, Texas – Multiple people were arrested in connection with a series of 8-liner raids Saturday night in Wilson County.
Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said the people arrested were employees of five game rooms suspected of participating in illegal gambling.
Zheng Haishan, Wang Chenchen, and Joseph Greco were charged with engaging in criminal activity, a third degree felony, as well as gambling promotion and possession of a gambling device, equipment and paraphernalia which are class A misdemeanors.
Xie Hai Bin, Bao Zhen, Ramiro Hinojosa and Veronica wade were charged with class A misdemeanors for possession of gambling devices, equipment and paraphernalia and gambling promotion.
81st District Attorney Rene Pena said investigators found about 70 machines with an average of $500 inside them at one of the larger game rooms that was raided. He said most of the illegal game rooms were in Floresville.
"Operation Game Over" was a joint effort by several law enforcement agencies.
Tackitt said the raids are much more than putting illegal game rooms out of business.
"We don't want people that are hurting for money to come out and lose what little money they have instead of taking care of their families," he said.
Pena said he believes there is a link between three of the locations that were raided.
The patrons who were inside the game rooms at the time of the raids were questioned and released.