ELSA — It’s an opportunity that the city manager here called “transformational” for a rural town best known for its high school football team, dubbed, La Maquina Amarilla, or “The Yellow Machine” in English.

But soon, Elsa will become known for a new type of machine — or rather, maquinitas — after officials approved a series of ordinances Tuesday evening that pave the way for legal gambling in the Delta city.

“The numbers that are (being) presented are, I mean, they’re transformational. I mean, they are out there,” Elsa City Manager Juan Jose “J.J.” Ybarra said after Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Ybarra was referring to the revenue potential of allowing electronic game rooms to operate within the city.

“To me and to (the) council, it’s a funding source that’s definitely worth exploring,” the city manager said.

Most forms of gambling are illegal in Texas; however, there are exceptions for things such as lottery tickets, bingo halls and electronic game rooms, which are more commonly called 8-liners.

It’s those kinds of game rooms that Elsa officials gave a near-unanimous go-ahead Tuesday night. Place 4 Councilwoman Frances S. Rocha abstained from the votes, while Place 3 Councilman Ricardo was not present Tuesday, but had voted in support of the game rooms ordinance in previous meetings.

With state law imposing such strict limitations on gambling, any would-be 8-liner operators in Elsa will have to abide by a stringent set of rules as set out in a 17-page ordinance — one of three related ordinances the council approved.

For instance, Elsa will only issue five permits, which are already garnering keen interest.

“The outpouring of potential, I guess, investors or whatever has been crazy. I know (the) planning (department) has gotten a lot of phone calls asking for what the process is to establish permits,” Ybarra said.

But operating a game room won’t come cheap.

Simply applying for one of the permits will cost $50,000 for a “premises license.” That fee will be non-refundable, regardless of whether or not the application is approved.

Nor will that fee be transferable should an owner try to sell or transfer the permit to someone else.

“Any change in the majority or controlling interest in any corporate Permit Holder shall be deemed a transfer to another entity and the Permit shall be automatically revoked as of the date such change was made,” the proposed ordinance states.

“The Permit Holder shall pay a… ($50,000) non-refundable transfer fee to the City for to (sic) transfer of the Permit Holder from one entity to another…” it further states.

Permits must be renewed annually, though it remains unclear whether the $50,000 application fee must be paid again when renewing an existing permit.

However, operators will need to pay an “electronic game room fee” each time they renew their permit, as well as a per-machine annual fee.

The ordinance does not specify what those fee amounts will be, but it does spell out others.

Operators will have to pay an “occupation tax” of $50 for each machine, as well as a conditional use permit fee for any establishment that operates 10 or more machines.

A second ordinance stipulates that operators will also have to pay a fee of $50 per machine to the Texas Game Room Owner’s Association, a nonprofit organization that has been assisting the city in drafting the game room ordinances.

That ordinance also states that the association will be responsible for providing “any legal defense or prosecution arising out of the Ordinance at no charge to the City, save and except any legal or case expense that may arise.”

Game rooms will be prohibited from operating within 300 feet of a school, church or daycare, and must be outfitted with a surveillance system and silent alarm.

Further, each game room will be required to have an Elsa police officer or other law enforcement officer who resides in Elsa to serve as a security guard at night.

And operators must allow city officials to inspect the establishments at any time during their business hours.

Failure to abide by the rules can result in fines of $10,000 per day for permit holders, and $500 per day for other individuals, the ordinance states.

Finally, the third ordinance approved by the council Tuesday states that the game rooms will not be allowed to open until Elsa adopts a “code of rules and regulations” regarding game room operation.

While city officials expressed optimism over the game rooms, at least one resident was nonplussed.

“I don’t agree with this. I don’t understand why you all would even consider this,” Esiquiel “Zeke” Avila said during public comments.

“This opens up the floodgates for more corruption here in this town. I don’t see how you guys can even bring this up. I don’t know what the push is for this,” he said, adding that a similar effort in La Joya had led to numerous law enforcement raids of 8-liner establishments.

But for the city manager, Avila’s has been the only voice opposing the game rooms.

Ybarra said he prefers to focus on what the revenue potential could mean for Elsa — full staffing and pay raises at the police department, a recreation center for kids, perhaps even a local history museum.

“If we get this influx of funds, there’s so many cool things we could do,” Ybarra said.