I was a bit annoyed until I read the article. Geez, people are doing a lot more than reading their email and shopping Amazon.
Never dreamed they would setup gambling places disguised as Internet cafes. These darn criminals had one heck of an operation going. Earning 300 million in 4 years. :eek:.
What does this mean for places like Starbucks that offer free Internet? Libraries and other Wi-Fi hotspots?
I’m quite sure the changes to the law won’t affect Starbucks, and other legitimate businesses that provide free wifi, in the slightest. These “storefront casinos” were exactly that, and didn’t resemble (physically or fiscally) legitimate businesses whatsoever.
I wanted to start a thread about this, ever since that Florida Lt Governor got in hot water. We have these in Hawaii now, too.
How does it work?
[ol]
[li]1. Buy a card to use an online slot machine for $10[/li][li]2. Winnings get transferred from the slot machine. You get the right combinations and making it a $50 card at the end of the run.[/li][li]3. Cash in your card, walk away with $50[/li][/ol]
The articles said they had some loophole about them being “sweepstakes”. So, some of the symbols are for, say, a blender, but you can return the card for the cash equivalent instead of the blender?
Either way, it seems awfully transparently gambling to be a true “loophole”. That a second grader, not a paid investigator, should’ve seen through this before it even got started. Especially Hawaii, which allows absolutely no gambling (even lotto).
I have some family members heavily involved in this Fla. case. Here’s how it worked in Florida. You go in and it’s a big room filled with computer terminals. You buy minutes to use the Internet. For every minute you buy, you get so many “sweepstake” entries. For example, if you buy $50 in minutes, you would get 500 entries.
Now, you can use the minutes for anything Internet-related. But nobody does. They use their entries to play casino-type games. If you win anything, you don’t “cash out,” you would “redeem.”
The people who run these say it’s no different than other sweepstakes, like the McDonald’s Monopoly game for example. They say all the winners are predetermined so it’s not gambling (which it is)
The problem in Florida is that these places have to be aligned with a charity that must give back to the community at least 60 percent of profits. Allied Veterans, the charity aligned with these places, is alleged to have only spent 2 percent of the profits in the community.
I know some of the people running these places and I can tell you, the money flowed like wine. I’m talking about big boats, multimillion dollar beachfront homes and sports cars. When I would visit them, there was a “Scarface” vibe with these people.
As an interesting bit of trivia, the company I work for recently did a survey of Florida residents on those “internet cafes.” I had never heard about them before that. It’s interesting to get more information.
It appears the loophole is the online connection. In theory, no actual gambling is occurring in the business location. They’re just providing you with internet access so you can connect with an online gambling business in some other jurisdiction.
We have them here in Israel, too, although fewer than there used to be. From what I can see, they don’t even try to look like anything other than gambling dens.
Come on now… If you’re going to bash a stereotype of Florida, at least work some sort of humor into it, or else what’s the point? Otherwise, it just comes off like you’re still bitter about getting busted with drugs in a prostitution sting in Miami.
Oh. In that case, you’ll be happy to know that there is plenty of legal gambling going on in America’s wang. It’s just the one’s exploiting loopholes by posing as charities, bribing politicians, dodging taxes, and laundering money that are getting raided.
ETA: The legal gambling venues just know not to pose as charities…
I’m in Brevard, ground zero for these “Internet Cafes”. There are (were?) at least 4 within walking distance of me, and I can easily tell you the locations of 3 more within 15 miles. Most of them are obviously nothing more than gambling parlors.
I assume the others are mostly gambling parlors as well, but are confusingly labelled enough that you might walk in to one if you just needed to use the Internet.
One of those questionable ones does not appear to be a member of the chain being discussed here. In fact, I wonder if it might also be a real internet cafe (in addition to offering gambling, as it advertises,) because it also offers coffee and breakfast. Then again it might just offer coffee and breakfast – for gamblers!
Around here, there’s no “Internet cafe” ruse, they just come right out and say SWEEPSTAKES on the door. The other give away is that they invariably have opaque mirroring on the windows or the glass is just painted black.
The state has been trying to get rid of them for some time, but the best they’ve been able to get through so far is that they can’t use “enticing graphic displays” for the gambling aspects.
There aren’t that many outlets for legal gambling of the sort that many people want to engage in. People like casino style gaming and these operations give them an approximation of that.
These type of places are primarily located in small towns that don’t have casinos reasonably nearby. They cater to a primarily low-class/elderly clientele that either just don’t have much else in town to do, and/or are just gambling degenerates. And it’s mainly just slot/bingo-like games, not full casino gambling.
Because these places have a nearly captive audience, and operate out of strip malls with a relatively miniscule overhead and minimal staff (compared to a real, flashy casino), and were using the “charity” cover to dodge taxes, it was nearly all going to the bottom line. I wouldn’t be surprised if the odds they were offering were borderline extortionate, either.
This kind of easy money attracts organized crime. Theres indications of corruption and payouts to officials. It’s already cost the Lt Governor her job. They’ve just begun uncovering this roach nest.
A lot of the lower income people are gambling away their unemployment checks or child support payments. Playing the slots instead of paying the rent or buying groceries. It can be a bad addiction.
My town in Ohio used to have one of these places. I’m not sure if it just folded up or if the city kicked it out. Before that, the popular ruse was “skill games.” IIRC, you’d do something like put the X in the right place on a tic tac toe board and then slots would show up. For the year or two before the city and state cracked down, there were 4 or 5 of the places.
