Honolulu police raided an illegal game room on Puʻuhale Road in Kalihi on Thursday, seizing 18 gaming machines and more than $12,000 in cash while arresting two men on felony gambling charges. The bust is the latest in a string of enforcement actions targeting the same industrial stretch of Kalihi, a neighborhood that has become a recurring flashpoint in the city's long-running fight against underground gambling operations.
According to a Facebook post from the Honolulu Police Department, officers with the Narcotics/Vice Division's gambling detail executed the search warrant Thursday and recovered the machines and cash as evidence. The two men arrested face charges of promoting gambling in the second degree and possession of a gambling device, the department said. HPD noted that the operation also drew support from the District 5 Crime Reduction Unit, the Forfeiture Detail, the Airport Operations Group, and the Specialized Services Division.
The Puʻuhale Road address is no stranger to vice enforcement. Police hit the same corridor, along with properties on Maukahine Street and Kahana Street, during a multi-location sweep in late October 2025 that shut down three separate game rooms in Kalihi, as reported by KHON2. That history underscores how quickly these operations can resurface even after a raid clears them out.
A Felony Now
Promoting gambling in the second degree carries real stakes these days. Under Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 712-1222, the offense is a Class C felony, according to Justia Law. The statute was amended by Act 111 in 2022.
Hawaiʻi has also moved to close off a different escape hatch for operators: the people who own or control the buildings where game rooms set up shop. Act 249, enacted in 2024, allows prosecutors to file charges against property owners or landlords who knowingly let illegal game rooms operate on their premises, expanding liability beyond just the cashiers and security guards on site, per Honolulu legislative documents.
Honolulu's City Council has layered on its own tool. Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed Bill 11 into law in 2025, requiring public businesses that operate video amusement devices to get an annual HPD permit starting in January 2026 — a measure meant to help officers tell lawful arcade machines apart from illegal gambling devices, according to the City and County of Honolulu. The bill was passed alongside two companion measures allowing joint police and code enforcement action against nuisance properties.
Why Vice Treats Game Rooms as More Than Gambling
Maj. Jerome Pacarro, commander of HPD's Narcotics/Vice Division, said officers work daily to shut down illegal game rooms across Oʻahu, maintaining pressure through short-term enforcement actions while building toward longer-term investigations. That daily grind reflects just how entrenched the problem has become: state and county officials told lawmakers in January that roughly 50 known illegal game rooms operate across Oʻahu, with the Department of Law Enforcement estimating the illicit gambling market at $700 million to $800 million annually, according to testimony covered by Hawaii Public Radio and detailed in Hoodline's earlier report on the legislative gambling study.
Those same officials told lawmakers that illegal narcotics turn up in roughly 75% of game room search warrant executions on Oʻahu, which is why police treat the rooms as public-safety hazards rather than simple gambling infractions, per the same Hawaii Public Radio report.
The scale of recent HPD sweeps has been substantial. In July, Narcotics/Vice officers shut down three separate game rooms operating inside a single Hausten Street apartment building in Moʻiliʻili, seizing 57 gambling machines and over $12,000 in cash after intelligence from initial warrants revealed additional hidden rooms in the same building, the department said. HPD closed 47 game rooms across Oʻahu in 2024 alone and has kept up a raid roughly every two to three weeks through 2025 and 2026, News From The States reported.
How to Report a Suspected Game Room
HPD is leaning on the public to report suspected game rooms. The department maintains a 24-hour Narcotics/Vice Division gambling hotline at 808-723-3933, along with an online reporting form, both relied upon to launch undercover investigations and secure the search warrants that lead to raids like Thursday's. Hoodline has covered a May 12 raid that carted off 23 machines from a Hoaha Street game room.
