Pearland, TX Gambling & Gaming: Game Room Regulations (2026)

City Code Article V, adopted by Ordinance No. 1336 on January 14, 2008, defines a 'gaming establishment' in Sec. 5-200 as a video arcade, game room, or other establishment with more than four coin-operated amusement machines or eight-liners for patron use, and separately defines an amusement machine as a recreational machine that pays the user something of value other than a free replay. Sec. 5-201 requires every gaming establishment to have transparent, unobstructed windows or open space on at least one side so the interior is visible to the public passing on the street or using a public corridor or lobby, and bars the owner, manager, or employee from obstructing that view.

Sec. 5-202 requires posted hours of operation at every public entrance and mandates that all doors used for public ingress and egress stay unlocked during those posted hours; operating outside the posted hours is a separate violation. These establishments also fall under Article II's coin-operated machine occupation tax (Sec. 5-13 through 5-18), which levies an annual tax equal to half the state tax on each machine and requires a paid tax receipt bearing the machine's serial number to be attached to it; an unpaid machine is declared a public nuisance subject to seizure and destruction by the police chief.