The number of illegal game rooms in Honolulu has been cut in half over the past year, police say, thanks in large part to operations targeting property owners instead of just the players and operators.

The city should expand those efforts, according to a task force aimed at finding new ways to crack down on one of the island’s most intractable problems.

The report was released Tuesday, days after police announced a joint effort with federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations to warn property owners suspected of hosting game rooms they may face asset forfeiture, a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution.

Gambling in any form is illegal in Hawaii, but backroom operations are often set up in homes, empty office spaces and businesses. Honolulu police have struggled to close them down as investigations that lead to raids can take weeks, only to see new game rooms set up elsewhere.

That has led authorities to try to find new ways to shutter the game rooms, with efforts to hold property owners responsible and make the practice less profitable showing signs of success.

Getting The Landlord’s Attention

The Honolulu Police Department teamed up with the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting to issue code violation notices aimed at those hosting the game rooms in a bid to make the practice less profitable.

The seven-member task force, which was established in July, recommended that the city make that standard practice by mandating cooperation between the two agencies “to ensure comprehensive DPP code enforcement of game rooms.”

The report also urged the city to invest in other areas, including funding for public education programs and gambling addiction treatment.

HPD estimates about 60 game rooms were active on Oahu, down from 120 in July 2023, according to the report. They are considered a serious public safety concern because they can attract other types of criminal activity such as robberies, shootings and drug use.

Honolulu City Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam said he expects the council to start acting on the task force’s recommendations by the beginning of next year.

“I’m glad the report reaffirms the core points that many of the people in the community have felt,” Dos Santos-Tam said. “It’s that HPD and DPP need to cooperate more, number one. Number two, we absolutely need to be holding landlords accountable, and number three, there are also other tools that we can be using, and I’m glad that the report lays those out for us.”

DPP Director Dawn Apuna, a member of the gambling room task force, said her agency has worked with police on about 10 operations involving game rooms in the Kalihi area over the past two years. 

Inspectors visited properties after police raids to issue code violation notices. Because the people operating the game rooms are often tenants and not the property owners, code violations are a good way to get the landlords’ attention, she said.

“The owners don’t want to deal with these game rooms if they’re getting the citations from DPP,” she said.

For example, after a raid at 1104 Palama St. in May 2023, the permitting department issued five notices of violation for problems including unpermitted renovations and defective electrical installations. Juhyun Pak was also arrested and later sentenced to four years of probation on a charge of promoting gambling in the second degree, according to court records.

Electrical Violations Are Common

Dos Santos-Tam said another property at 1466 Liliha Street was cited for operating an illegal game room. Property records show violation notices issued in August for making alterations to the building without a permit and electrical code violations. 

Apuna said electrical violations are common because unpermitted electrical work is often done to accommodate multiple gaming machines. Owners usually respond to the violations, which can carry fines of $100 per day of noncompliance.

Apuna said so far her inspectors have only worked with police in the Kalihi district and officials in other districts around the island haven’t called on her department for help.

Task force members would like to see the City Council pass a bill establishing mandatory cooperation between the agencies islandwide to further hold property owners accountable.

The permitting department has enough resources to assist police with one gambling room operation per week, according to the task force’s report.

The task force met four times before issuing its report and wrapping up its work. Other members were HPD Maj. Mike Lambert, Honolulu Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Gabriel Huntington, Deputy Corporation Counsel Kurt Nakamatsu, Office of Council Services Legislative Analyst Kamakana Watanabe and two members of the public, Kathleen Lee and Mark Clemente, who served as chair.

More Enforcement Tools

Dos Santos-Tam said he supports passing an ordinance to formalize the partnership between the agencies and make it islandwide because he’s seen it work in his own district. 

“I want to codify this because at some point there will be a new DPP director, there will be new police officers working on this at HPD,” he said. “I want to make sure that this process they’ve put in place right now is durable and continues to be effective in the future.”  

Law enforcement agencies have been trying other ways to hold property owners responsible as well. 

On Oct. 5, Honolulu police and Homeland Security Investigations agents said they had served warnings to 60 property owners suspected to have illegal game room activities on their land. Many were in Kalihi, Waianae and Central Oahu.

The warnings said the property owners could be subject to asset forfeiture, a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution if the activity didn’t stop.

The agencies served 60 other notices to property owners last year and most of them complied by removing the illegal activity from their properties, Lucia Cabral-DeArmas, special agent in charge with Homeland Security Investigations, said during a press conference. She said the game rooms generate about $1 million a year.

HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu said in a statement that because some of the properties have multiple owners, fewer than 60 properties were affected. She declined to provide addresses for the properties.

Dos Santos-Tam said ideally, the city can get to a place where landlords are shutting down game rooms on their properties after being threatened with fines and criminal charges.

“To do a raid, to go through a whole prosecution, it’s very time consuming, it’s very expensive,” Dos Santos-Tam said. “We want to be able to say to the landlords, ‘You need to shut this down before it gets out of hand.’”

Read the Gambling Rooms Task Force report below: