§ 140A.002.Civil Racketeering

One sentence, and it is the narrowest racketeering definition of its kind.

A person or enterprise commits racketeering if, for financial gain, the person or enterprise commits an offense under Chapter 20A, Penal Code (trafficking of persons).

Two elements: a trafficking offense, and financial gain.

The contrast with the federal racketeering statute is the thing to notice. That statute lists dozens of predicate offenses and requires a pattern — two or more acts. This one names a single category of offense and requires one act.

So Texas built something narrower in subject and broader in structure: no pattern requirement, but nothing outside trafficking.

"For financial gain" is the limiting element, and it separates the trafficking enterprise from the individual offender. The chapter is aimed at the business of trafficking — the money — which is what its remedies are built to reach.

No conviction is required. The definition turns on committing an offense, and the evidence provision sets the standard at a preponderance.

The borrowing means the civil claim follows the criminal law. Amendments broadening Chapter 20A broaden this chapter automatically — the same technique the trafficking, compelled prostitution and methamphetamine chapters use.

The companion racketeering chapter, 140B, covers a much longer list of predicate offenses and is the general provision; this one is the trafficking-specific predecessor.