By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 07, 2011
Updated: December 07, 2011 – 9:55 PM
Tampa — One side called Internet sweepstakes cafés illegal gambling parlors. The other side said the popular cafés create jobs and raise huge sums for charity.
After a lengthy public hearing Wednesday, Hillsborough County commissioners came down on the anti-gambling side, voting 5-2 to shut down the 30-plus sweepstakes cafés in the county. The vote to ban the businesses came after a motion to impose a moratorium on new cafés failed by a 3-4 vote.
Commissioners are now bracing for a lawsuit. Similar attempts by Pinellas, Seminole and other Florida counties to ban the games have been challenge in court.
“The reality is, what Seminole County passed is virtually the same ordinance” that Hillsborough commissioners approved, said Kelly Mathis, an attorney for Allied Veterans of the World. The non-profit operates four cafes in Hillsborough.
The legality of the cafés is in dispute throughout the state because state law is vague concerning what constitutes a slot machine.
Operators of the cafés say they are offering a chance at cash prizes to customers who buy Internet time. Though the players see a slot machine on their computer screen, the winning number is predetermined, supporters say, much like a scratch-off sweepstakes ticket used as a promotion at fast food and retail businesses.
“What the commission has done is taken legitimate businesses and said, ‘We don’t want them in Hillsborough County,'” Mathis said.
But the Hillsborough County Sheriff and the county attorney’s office consider the computerized games slot machines, which are illegal except in certain approved venues, such as the Seminole Hard Rock Café. A recent opinion on the issue by State Attorney General Pam Bondi supported that view.
Supporters and opponents of the cafés packed the commission chambers, lining up to speak in their allotted two minutes. Both sides were organized and stayed on message.
Opponents, led by east Hillsborough social conservative Terry Kemple, stressed the evils of gambling and challenged commissioners to overcome their fear of lawsuits in pursuit of the common good.
“The legal point here is not whether the computers are slot machines,” Kemple said. “The issue is whether to exercise responsibility to protect our communities.”
Donna Rogers spoke of her gambling addicted brother who “wrecked his life playing around on the computer.
“If you look where many of these places are, they’re in poor neighborhoods and places where a lot of senior citizens live,” Rogers said. “They’re taking advantage of economic vulnerability.”
Don Tanner, a pastor in Ruskin, said the gambling devastates families so businesses that own the cafés can make fat profits.
“Fellas like me have to pick up the pieces and try to help families … after addiction to gambling has taken its toll,” Tanner said.
Supporters wore yellow T-shirts that said “Don’t Shut down our internet cafés.” They challenged commissioners’ commitment to creating jobs, saying closing the cafés would leave them unemployed.
“How is me not having a job and me being unemployed enhancing the lives of me and my family or this community?” asked Debra McIntyre, who said she supports an autistic son by working in an internet café.
Dave Plunkett, who said he manages a café, challenged allegations that the businesses prey on the elderly and the poor.
“We have retired military, retired law enforcement, retired attorneys — every walk of life and they’re all good people,” Plunkett said.
But the most riveting speaker was an undercover sheriff’s detective who wore a black hood to protect his identity. Under orchestrated questioning from Chris Brown, legal counsel to the sheriff, the detective recounted his experiences infiltrating cafés.
The detective said patrons of the cafés never used the Internet, but gambled away hundreds of dollars in minutes with the simulated slot machines. Many patrons are elderly the detective said.
“One lady customer lost $350 in 10 minutes,” the hooded figure said. He also said he had been told by a software salesman that the cafés manipulated the odds on the sweepstakes contests.
Mathis complained that the pro-café forces had been “sandbagged” by the detective’s testimony.
“I should have had an opportunity to cross-examine him,” Mathis said.
After more than an hour of comment by the public and the detective, Commissioner Sandy Murman made a motion to shutter the cafés. She restated her position that the businesses were operating illegal gambling houses that don’t pay taxes yet suck money away from the most vulnerable residents.
But Commissioner Victor Crist countered with a substitute motion to impose a moratorium on new cafés, regulating and taxing the existing parlors. Crist said he has always opposed gambling but owes a higher duty not to squander taxpayers’ money fighting a lawsuit.
It seemed the moratorium would prevail, and Murman said she was ready to concede defeat. But commission Chairman Ken Hagan told Murman her comments were “premature.”
“I have to rely on the advice of our county attorney and the sheriff’s office,” Hagan said, “and they were very clear in what they were saying. I’m not going to support the substitute motion.”
After the moratorium was voted down, Commissioner Mark Sharpe reversed course and voted for the ban.
“I don’t want to be the poster child for internet cafés,” Sharpe said.
