Deputy Editor
A Texas mayor was arrested as part of a wider gambling sting in Hitchcock, located just onshore across the West Bay from Galveston Island. Mayor Christopher Armacost was one of 33 arrested in a bust that resulted in the confiscation of more than $400,000 and 749 gambling machines.
While gambling remains popular among Texans, it’s illegal statewide outside of a few far-flung tribal properties. Texas cardrooms have scooped up much of the legal Texas gambling market by offering poker, with the long legal battle there appearing to finally end in the rooms’ favor last year.
However, the Hitchcock story reflects the demand for more traditional house-banked gambling options. As long as that’s the case, someone is going to try to meet that demand. Including, apparently, local government authorities.
And considering Galveston’s colorful history, the latest bust is merely another chapter in the area’s ongoing gambling lore.
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Mayor Caught Up in Gambling Bust As County Sheriff Steps In
The county investigation of Hitchcock began due to a flurry of gambling complaints from locals. Galveston County Sheriff Jimmy Fullen told the media he had met with Armacost last year and had encouraged him to address the issue.
When Armacost failed to do so, Fullen’s office initiated an investigation. What it uncovered was that not only had Armacost failed to stop the illegal gambling, he was allegedly profiting from it.
According to the investigators, Armacost owns Comfort Zone Washateria, a local laundromat. They found five gambling machines there, which they played while undercover. After playing the machines, they said they received a cash payout from an attendant.
After busting the Washateria and other businesses, the investigators seized $417,752, eight firearms, and 749 gambling machines. The sting targeted 20 different establishments.
Fullen said that the gambling establishments were connected to local criminal elements, including prostitution, narcotics trafficking, and robberies. Criminals looking for a quick cash grab have targeted Texas poker players in various incidents.
Armacost was charged with engaging in organized crime. He released a statement through his attorney:
“Some of the most important rights granted to Americans by the Constitution are the presumption of innocence, and the right to confront your accusers in court to test the strength of those accusations. I have been charged by the State with offenses as a private citizen and business owner. Neither my work as Mayor for the City of Hitchcock, nor my work as an administrator for Hitchcock Independent School District have been implicated in these charges. It is with that in mind that I intend to defend myself as a private citizen, and decline to fight this case in the media. This case will be resolved in court, as is right and proper. Thank you.”
Illegal Gambling in Texas Moves Underground After Once Flourishing in Galveston
About a century ago, Galveston was known as the vice capital of Texas, the state’s local equivalent of Las Vegas. Dubbed the “Free State of Galveston” during the Prohibition Era, it was home to a thriving economy based on gambling parlors, bootleg liquor, and prostitution.
At that time, too, local authorities were well aware of the activities and allowed them to go on unimpeded for decades, until a crackdown began in the 1950s. Reportedly, the last big gambling bust of that era culminated in more than 2,000 slot machines being thrown into the sea.
Today, Galveston counts only a population of about 53,000, which is actually down from figures above 60,000 in the 1950s and 1960s, despite the U.S. population having roughly doubled over the same time frame.
Texas’s illegal gambling market is no longer concentrated in any particular city. But continued demand for the activity means the Hitchcock bust isn’t the first and won’t be the last to occur. If gambling machines are out in the open in laundromats owned by a local mayor, it’s a safe bet that they’re nestled into various establishments, both legitimate and otherwise, across the state.
Image credit: Devin P. Morris/Wikimedia Commons (license)
