Ohio: Internet Cafes

Ohio House should act

Senate bill would close Internet cafes, but awaits concurrence

Sunday July 14, 2013

The Ohio Senate recently took action to put Internet sweepstakes cafes out of business and end Ohioans’ misery.

It’s the second such effort in two months.

But this time, the Senate is giving these illegal gambling storefronts no leeway: The new amendment, added to a casino bill voted on June 27, carries the previously neglected emergency clause to force an immediate shutdown of these businesses that prey on the poor, feed gambling addictions and bring crime into communities.

Emergency legislation waives the usual 90-day waiting period to take effect, and it can’t be overturned at the ballot box through referendum.

Senate Bill 141 now awaits consideration by the House, where there has been strong support for banning the sweepstakes cafes through emergency legislation. While the House isn't expected to reconvene until September, it could always do so sooner for an urgent matter of public protection.
This is such an issue.

Ohio's top law-enforcement officials say these sweepstakes cafes are a front for multistate gambling syndicates and money laundering. This spring, Ohio’s 8th District Court of Appeals in Cleveland upheld three Internet cafe convictions, ruling that the businesses were illegal gambling parlors.

Until a new law passed this year, officials could only guess how many cafes were operating statewide; 339 have now identified themselves.

These unregulated mini-casinos are devastating the lives of Ohioans. As The Dispatch reported, nearly two-thirds of those being treated for gambling addiction at Maryhaven, a Columbus addiction-treatment center, blame Internet sweepstakes cafes for getting them hooked.

"They are ubiquitous," said Paul Coleman, president and chief executive officer of Maryhaven. "You don't have to drive across town or out of town to a casino."

At this moment, cafe proponents are working to collect more than 231,000 signatures by Sept. 3 to overturn the legislature’s first ban, House Bill 7, by putting a referendum on the November 2014 ballot. If that succeeds, the ban would be postponed until the vote.

Cafes would get a whole year longer to continue raking in enormous profits. In the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park, for example, police recently seized $1.2 million during a raid of the Cyber Oasis Internet cafe.

And the industry would have an entire year to try to confuse Ohioans. The Internet cafes have deep pockets and their campaign would be slick and well-funded.

Not only does Senate Bill 141 include an immediate ban that cannot be repealed, it offers what Sen. President Keith Faber, R-Celina, believes it is a better approach.

While House Bill 7 caps the cafes’ sweepstakes prizes at $10, Senate Bill 141 approaches the problem in a different way: It bans operations that give out prizes exceeding 5 percent of a business’ gross receipts.

Ohioans have always had a wary approach to gambling, approving it only in rare cases where it benefited schools or cash-strapped local governments, and then only under tight supervision. The cafes sneaked into the state with no permission, no oversight and some operators with criminal backgrounds.

It’s time for the Internet sweepstakes cafe industry to pack up and leave Ohio. The legislature should prove the familiar saying about gambling: The House always wins.


http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2013/07/14/ohio-house-should-act.html