Game rooms suspected in gambling

BURNET, Texas (KXAN) - Brandon Reeses' truck and accessory shop on State Highway 29 in Burnet stays pretty busy all week, but not nearly as busy as The Tropicana Games across the street.

"Always busy. Always packed full," said Reese. "And as you can see now, no cars today. None this morning."

That's because an overnight raid led by several agencies moved in last night closing seven game rooms -- some in Burnet, some in Llano County -- where authorities said hundreds of people often play Internet games with illegal cash payouts.

"It resulted in the seizure of a lot of illegal gambling devices and evidence of illegal gambling," said Sonny McAfee, district attorney with the 33rd and 424th judicial courts.

He said the game rooms were operating in plain sight, bringing in customers at all ours of the day and night.

Two were arrested charged with running illegal gambling game rooms. No players were arrested.

Tracy Timmons owns a pizza business next to one of the shut-down rooms.

"I did have customers come in that did win money in this sweepstake,s" said Timmons. "And they would come buy their food with it."

The district attorney said there could be additional charges filed against those arrested. He's also looking into other game rooms that could also be operating illegal gambling.