Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012
Editorial: Either ban ‘Internet cafes’ or demand a fair tax payment
By Jac Versteeg
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Big gambling interests like Genting, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts prefer the term “gaming,” but that’s not the only way they game the English language.
The latest push to con Florida voters into changing the state constitution to expand casino gambling calls itself “New Jobs and Revenue for Florida.” Folks, it’s not about jobs for Florida. It’s about profits for the casinos.
Now the big boys of gambling are being copied by their pernicious little cousins, the so-called “Internet cafes.” As The Post’s John Kennedy reported last week, the rogue gambling outfits are throwing campaign contributions at former friends and foes. One brazenly misleading front group doles out money under the name “Save Our Internet Access.” Groups that want the Legislature to be kind to Internet cafes have given at least $700,000.
The “Internet access” they’re trying to save has nothing to do with your ability to Google trivia. They want to preserve “access” to a loophole in Florida law that has let them run mini-casinos in strip shopping centers and pay little to nothing in taxes on their profits. The Legislature could have shut them down this year. But banning them — or at least regulating them to make them pay a fair tax rate — got shunted aside in the failed push to bring Las Vegas-style casinos. Of course, as with the casinos, as long as the issues are unresolved, campaign cash flows freely.
Ballot initiatives financed by gambling interests can end up hurting Florida, history shows. The 2004 vote that authorized slot machines at racetracks in Miami-Dade and Broward counties has led to a series of lawsuits and the relentless push for still more high-stakes gambling, while falling well short of the promised income for education.
Legislators might have proposed anti-casino amendments. Or they could have heavily regulated and taxed any new “resorts” to reduce the potential invasion. Defaulting to gambling-backed amendments will produce a worse outcome. Legislators should not follow the same pattern for Internet cafes.
Jac Wilder VerSteeg
for The Post Editorial Board
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/editorial-either-ban-internet-cafes-or-demand-a-fa/nQFxs/
The latest push to con Florida voters into changing the state constitution to expand casino gambling calls itself “New Jobs and Revenue for Florida.” Folks, it’s not about jobs for Florida. It’s about profits for the casinos.
Now the big boys of gambling are being copied by their pernicious little cousins, the so-called “Internet cafes.” As The Post’s John Kennedy reported last week, the rogue gambling outfits are throwing campaign contributions at former friends and foes. One brazenly misleading front group doles out money under the name “Save Our Internet Access.” Groups that want the Legislature to be kind to Internet cafes have given at least $700,000.
The “Internet access” they’re trying to save has nothing to do with your ability to Google trivia. They want to preserve “access” to a loophole in Florida law that has let them run mini-casinos in strip shopping centers and pay little to nothing in taxes on their profits. The Legislature could have shut them down this year. But banning them — or at least regulating them to make them pay a fair tax rate — got shunted aside in the failed push to bring Las Vegas-style casinos. Of course, as with the casinos, as long as the issues are unresolved, campaign cash flows freely.
Ballot initiatives financed by gambling interests can end up hurting Florida, history shows. The 2004 vote that authorized slot machines at racetracks in Miami-Dade and Broward counties has led to a series of lawsuits and the relentless push for still more high-stakes gambling, while falling well short of the promised income for education.
Legislators might have proposed anti-casino amendments. Or they could have heavily regulated and taxed any new “resorts” to reduce the potential invasion. Defaulting to gambling-backed amendments will produce a worse outcome. Legislators should not follow the same pattern for Internet cafes.
Jac Wilder VerSteeg
for The Post Editorial Board
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/editorial-either-ban-internet-cafes-or-demand-a-fa/nQFxs/
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