Ohio House members passed legislation that could all but ban Internet cafes, but whether the Senate goes along still seems like a real roll of the dice. There are several of these cafes in operation in Marion.
By a 63-30 bipartisan vote, House members agreed to block the 800 or so storefront parlors that have sprouted up across Ohio in recent years. The legislation, which squeaked out of a divided House Judiciary Committee by a single vote, doesn’t allow Internet cafes to award prizes worth more than $10 and would stop all cash prizes.
Operators of the businesses where patrons buy phone cards and play slot-machine type games for cash prizes say the House-approved bill will shut them down. Backers of the bill are trying to shutter the operations because they say the cafes are really illegal gambling operations.
But the cafe owners argue otherwise, saying they are selling phone cards and that they walk a fine legal line that allows them to offer sweepstakes prizes.
With lawmakers breaking for the holidays next Thursday, it isn’t clear whether the Republican-dominated Senate will move the bill this session.
Wednesday’s flurry of legislative activity over the bill capped two days of testimony over the Internet cafes before a split House Judiciary Committee.
Some lawmakers seemed to favor steps toward banning the cafes.
Others, such as Northeast Ohio Republican Reps. Nan Baker and Danielle Anielski, favored a different approach that would have heavily regulated the industry. The issue came to head this week because lawmakers essentially punted on the issue last year when they placed a one-year moratorium on new Internet cafes. It will expire at the end of June 2013.
Committee testimony from several cafe owners demonstrated the lengths operators go in attempt to walk a line keeping them from violating Ohio’s laws against gambling.
A typical cafe operation involves a patron buying a phone card that can be redeemed for points. Those points in turn can be used on a variety of games which mimic video poker and slot machines and award points — and eventually cash — when the player wins. However, the outcome is predetermined so operators argue that its no gamble, but merely a sweepstakes attached to a product similar to what’s offered at fast food restaurants.
Attorney General Mike DeWine said assertions that the cafes aren’t gambling are ridiculous.
“This is hard-core gambling and to label it a something else is absurd,” said DeWine, who testified for the ban. “That is a fake front to get through the Ohio law to call it a sweepstakes.”
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