Two measures at the Honolulu City Council aim to help police take down illegal game rooms.
The council held a hearing this week for Bills 57 and 58, which were introduced in September.
Bill 57 would designate buildings with “electronic or coin-operated gambling devices” as nuisances, meaning the city could fine property owners for allowing game rooms. The city’s Corporation Counsel would also be able to take legal action against them.
Bill 58 would give Honolulu police officers the ability to enforce building code violations with the assistance of city building inspectors.
Police say taking down illegal game rooms is slow because they have to prove gambling is taking place. With the proposed measures, building code violations could be another enforcement tool.
Honolulu Police Department Maj. Mike Lambert said building code violations are common in illegal game rooms.
“It's extremely common. Exposed wiring is probably one of the most common dangerous violations that we see. For example, you could have anywhere (up to) 16 devices in a room, and most places aren't wired for that many large electronics, so a lot of it is makeshift,” he told councilmembers this week.
Last year, Lambert said that about 100 illegal game rooms are operating on Oʻahu at any given moment. Local leaders and the public want to remove the operations because of their association with dangerous and illegal activity.
HPD and the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting showed support for the measures, although worry that the new laws could mix the duties between police and inspectors.
The departments did not want to give building inspectors the authority to gather evidence for a crime or give police the ability to enforce building code violations.
Councilmember Andria Tupola, who co-introduced Bill 58, proposed a draft of the bill that she said would allow “HPD to share information with DPP in the event that they've done a case in a building that had violations of which DPP could not enter for safety or not enter because there was an ongoing case.”
The council agreed to postpone the bills so they can communicate with relevant city agencies and ensure there aren't any legal issues with the bills' current language.
