Is it gambling?

Is it gambling?

Supporters of Internet cafés say they are nothing more than a fun way to spend an evening playing games while opponents call them gambling houses and are intent on banning them from the state
By Dan Harkins
For Hometown News

DAYTONA BEACH - On a recent quiet Saturday evening, Charlotte Odegaard is manning the register at her U Lucky Dog Internet café on North Atlantic Avenue and playing a game of Angry Birds on her iPad.

In the small strip mall space that could house a diner or consignment shop, two long rows of computer terminals flash silently, each displaying the colorful graphics of different games of chance. One elderly customer is silently playing keno, known to aficionados as "the other poker." A sunset view of the beach glows dimly through the open front door.

"This is a relaxing place to meet friends," Ms. Odegaard said. "I don't have any problems with the city and they haven't had any problems with me."

But not everyone likes the plethora of Internet cafés springing up lately. What Ms. Odegaard refers to as a "relaxing place to meet friends," many others refer to as thinly veiled gambling houses intent on skirting the state's anti-gambling laws and bringing in lucrative returns for café owners from the pockets of their usually working class or retired customers.

The state and many area cities seem intent on getting rid of them.

Dueling bills in the Florida legislature would either ban or require strict state regulation of businesses like Ms. Odegaard's. Daytona Beach, Port Orange, South Daytona and many other cities have passed moratoriums on new permits for the cafés. Other cities, like Ponce Inlet and Daytona Beach Shores, wasted no time in banning the storefronts outright.

Ms. Odegaard's not going to fret just yet, though.

"They change their minds more than I change my underwear," she said of lawmakers. "Until I see something passed, I'm not getting worried."

Gambling or 'relaxation'?

Internet cafés, also known as cyber cafés, got their start in the early 1990s, with the advent of the Internet. Back then, most people did not have a home computer and the cafés offered a way for people to browse the Internet and check e-mail and also have a cup of coffee or a meal (hence "café" in the name). Now, because most people have home computers, simply browsing the Internet is no longer the lure, according to opponents.

"It is the simulated gambling that brings people in the door," South Daytona Community Development Director John Dillard said.

The city recently placed a moratorium on new cafés.

The businesses, now also known as Internet sweepstakes cafés or convenience casinos, still sell Internet time, typically through the purchase of phone cards. But that purchase doesn't just get customers Internet time, it earns them credits toward Vegas-like computerized sweepstakes games.

Customers pay for their time, sit down at an assigned terminal and either surf the Internet or seek cash prizes by playing a game - from poker and slots to roulette and blackjack.

What makes it legal, supporters say, is the games are just a fun way to find out what predetermined sweepstakes amount the customers have won - they don't actually win money because of their great poker hand. There is a predetermined number of winning entries paid out over a finite period.

State Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, sponsored a House bill that would ban the cafés.

"The café owners say it's not really gambling because the outcome is predetermined, but tell that to the person in the seat," Mr. Plakon said. "They believe they're gambling. Slot machines are known as the most destructive form of gambling. I call it the crack of gambling."

Ms. Odegaard disagrees. She has worked at U Lucky Dog for three years. She and her husband bought the place in September 2010.

"I don't see any negativity with this," she said. "It's a safe, fun place to hang out and make friends. It's no different than people playing scratch-offs or looking under the cap of a 7-Up can to see if you win something. Some people justify a ban by saying we prey on people, but we don't force anybody to come in here."

She replies to the question of whether it's gambling or not with a joke.

"We don't use the 'G' word here," she said.

But her customers do.

At one of a few center terminals, Ina LaPointe of Daytona Beach is catching up on some computerized Keno. Normally, she goes to another storefront closer to her house, but she uses this one on days she has to drop off her granddaughter at work nearby.

"I like to gamble," she said. "I enjoy it. I work. I pay my bills. So this is my fun."

They could do it online at home, says a 61-year-old woman sitting near Ms. LaPointe, who didn't want to share her name. But, "you can't meet anybody sitting at home on the computer," she said. "And it's cheaper than a shrink."

What harm?

When many of the local cities discuss banning Internet cafés, they talk about the "element" they bring with them and how they will be detrimental to the neighborhoods they open in. In a zoning dispute last May, Port Orange Vice-Mayor Dennis Kennedy said he would like to keep them out of the city altogether.

"... Frankly, I think the better areas for these aren't in Port Orange," he said.

The city is currently being sued by Allied Veterans of the World, a company that owns several Internet cafés throughout the state, for what a spokesperson calls "descrimination." The lawsuit, one of several Allied Veterans is involved in throughout the state, is pending.

Though Police Chief Mike Chitwood has publicly stated his desire to keep Internet cafés on a tighter leash, police investigator Jimmy Flint said last week that "we have not had any problems at those Internet cafés. I even talked to the chief, who would know specifically if these places were a problem, and he said, 'No.'"

That's not to say they haven't been a problem for other law enforcement agencies. South Daytona and Port Orange officials say the Internet cafes in their cities have more than the normal number of police reports filed from their locations.

Many of the state's county sheriff's have asked legislators for a statewide ban, citing the large pots of cash that accumulate in the businesses during an average day. Recently, a three-man armed robbery at one Apopka café ended in one death.

According to a statement from the Seminole County Sheriff's Department, crime increased 14 percent after nine of the businesses sprouted up in that county.

And while law enforcement dislikes the immediate harm of increased crime, gambling support groups say Internet cafés cause indirect harm to those who patronize them.

Brian Kongsvik, the director of the 1-888-ADMIT-IT helpline for the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, said more than 1,000 Internet cafés have sprung up around the state in the last half-dozen years.

Two years ago, when the organization started tracking them, 68 callers to the help line cited Internet cafés as their primary addiction. Last year, it was 122. The number is on pace to be higher this year, he said.

"We know there is a significant population that's affected by these establishments," Mr. Kongsvik said. "And it's our opinion, not the state's or anybody else's, that they may very well be attracting a population of people that would not necessarily drive to a destination casino to gamble, but now, they're right there on their street." [PROXIMITY]

In defense of the establishments, gaming lobbyists and owners regularly compare the cafés to playing the Monopoly game at McDonald's. Mr. Kongsvik finds this to be misguided.

"Never, in my 22 years of dealing with problem and compulsive gamblers, has anybody called us and told me that they're losing their house, have lost their job, are getting a divorce or are in financial dire straits because of the Monopoly game at McDonald's," he said.

Future restrictions


State Rep. Plakon said banning the businesses outright as opposed to regulating them is the right thing to do.

"To merely regulate these businesses would create thousands of gambling establishments around the state," Mr. Plakon said. "Wouldn't that be the largest single expansion of gambling in the state?"

The bills are still in committee review and Mr. Plakon said it is uncertain whether they will make it to the floor for a vote in the upcoming legislative session.

Several owners of Internet cafés in the Daytona area refused to comment for this story. Managers running storefronts for the Allied Veterans of the World referred calls to the company's St. Augustine headquarters where a receptionist referred questions to Jacksonville attorney Kelly Mathis.

That call was forwarded to Sarah Bascum, spokeswoman for the Florida Internet Café Coalition, who didn't return several calls for comment.