An Ohio House committee Tuesday approved legislation that would essentially outlaw Internet cafes in Ohio. The bill’s next stop is the Ohio House floor before the measure is sent to the Senate.
The bill cleared the panel by an 8-2 vote with three amendments. One would downgrade violations to a first-degree misdemeanor rather than a fifth-degree felony.
House Bill 7 aims to snuff out Ohio’s 800-some Internet, or sweepstakes, cafes by forbidding cash giveaways and capping prizes at $10 — a move that would all but put cafe gaming operations out of business.
The panel moved the bill amid concerns raised by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and numerous other state law-enforcement officials who said the sweepstakes industry not only permits illegal gambling and harms charitable organizations but promotes crimes such as money laundering, racketeering and sex trafficking.
Operators of Internet cafes say the businesses, which sell computer and phone time with cash-prize contests included to draw in customers, are not akin to illegal gambling and are not dens of criminal activity.
Lobbyists for the sweepstakes businesses have said House Bill 7 is nothing more than a witch hunt carried out by lawmakers to take out an industry that competes with Ohio casinos, which are heavily regulated by the state. Supporters of the cafes have also said that under current Ohio law, sweepstakes games are not gambling and no different from promotional contests offered by other businesses.
Rep. Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican sponsoring the bill, has disagreed, saying there is a clear distinction between a promotional gimmick, like Monopoly at McDonald’s, and the slot-machine-like games offered at Internet cafes, which are clearly the parlors’ flagship product.
“No one goes into McDonald’s … and spends $5,000 on hamburgers to pull little tickets off to see if they win money,” he said last month during the legislation’s first hearing.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online News
