On 10.06.11, In Blog, By Murman

Demorris A. Lee, St. Petersburg Times
Thursday, October 6, 2011

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/hillsborough-sheriff-warns-internet-sweepstakes-cafes-to-fly-right/1195463

In joining a crackdown already under way in neighboring counties, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is warning owners of Internet sweepstakes cafes to stop any illegal gambling or risk prosecution.

In a letter dated Oct. 3, the Sheriff’s Office writes to owners that it is “obligated to investigate all illegal activities occurring within our jurisdiction, including illegal gambling activities.”

The letter states that “according to our understanding of your operation, you are conducting business activities in violation” of state gambling laws.

The letters come as Hillsborough County commissioners are set to meet next week to take their own steps to regulate the cafes.

Sweepstakes cafes have been allowed to operate freely in Hillsborough, while in Pinellas and Pasco counties, Sheriffs Jim Coats and Chris Nocco have shut down such cafes and arrested owners.

In both Pinellas and Pasco, the sheriffs began their enforcement campaigns against the cafes with similar letters of warning. Coats and Nocco contend that the cafes foster illegal gambling.

Larry McKinnon, a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said Wednesday that the letters sent this week give owners the opportunity to make sure their businesses operate legally.

“If they are unclear about what the law says, then they should consult an attorney or the State Attorney’s Office for clarification,” McKinnon said.

The number of Internet sweepstakes cafes has soared in the Tampa Bay area recently.

Sweepstakes cafe customers purchase Internet time that they use to access casino-style games on cafe computers. Points won in the games can be redeemed for cash in the cafes.

Last month, Hillsborough County commissioners voted unanimously to direct staffers to draft an ordinance banning simulated gambling devices. The ban could exempt nonprofit groups.

Commissioners have scheduled a workshop for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss regulating the cafes. If they can agree on language for an ordinance, a public hearing will be held Oct. 19.

Commissioner Sandy Murman, who wants the establishments banned, said there are at least 25 Internet sweepstakes cafes operating in unincorporated Hillsborough.

“The Sheriff’s Office is doing the right thing,” Murman said of the letters. “They are supposed to stop crime and illegal activity.”

The letters are arriving at cafes days before commissioners discuss local regulations, but Murman said the two events are not related.

“I don’t think anyone is operating on a timeline because of the ordinance we are proposing,” Murman said. “The workshop will allow both sides to present their case.”

Nancee Laursen, owner of the Enless II sweepstakes cafe on W Hillsborough Avenue, received one of the letters. She said she is running a legal business.

“I’m going to wait and see what happens,” Laursen said. “The fact is, it’s not gambling. If they are going to investigate, they should come into my store and let us know they are here so I can explain it to them. It’s completely black and white. It’s not gambling.”

But area law enforcement agencies point to Florida gambling statute 849.16, which states in part that any device is considered a slot machine — illegal in Florida except where specifically allowed — if it operates “as a result of the insertion of any piece of money, coin or other object” and if the user, because of “any element of chance,” receives anything of value.

Sweepstakes cafe proponents point to a different state statute on game promotions when they argue their cafes are legal. They say they are merely using sweepstakes games to promote their businesses.

A Pinellas cafe owner is challenging Coats’ decision to raid and close her Palm Harbor business. A federal court hearing in Tampa is scheduled for Oct. 14.

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Hillsborough County steps closer to banning café sweepstakes games

On 08.18.11, In Blog, By Murman

Posted: Aug 17 10:22 PM

TAMPA – Hillsborough County moved one step closer to banning sweepstakes games at internet cafes.

On Wednesday, commissioners voted 7-0 to draft an ordinance that would ban the sweepstakes games. The ordinance would still have to go through a public hearing and commissioners would have to vote on it.

Commissioner Sandy Murman made the motion. She believes it should be illegal for patrons to purchase time on a computer, where they play sweepstakes games for prizes.

She considers it illegal gambling. On Wednesday, lawyers from the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office agreed with Murman’s legal assessment, but added the state law on the topic was too ambiguous, making it difficult to enforce.

They recommended the county make its own decision about what to do about the sweepstakes cafes.

After a long, heated debate — during which some commissioners suggested a task force to look into the matter — the commissioners ultimately backed Murman’s proposal.

The ordinance to be drafted would not ban internet cafes, just the use of sweepstakes-style games on the machines at the cafes.

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After confusion, Tampa and Hillsborough officials try to improve economic incentive process

On 08.02.11, In Blog, By Murman

By Richard Danielson and Bill Varian, Times Staff Writers 

In Print: Tuesday, August 2, 2011

TAMPA — Last week’s confusion over a $1.2 million incentive package for Pricewaterhouse­Coopers had local officials talking Monday about creating a process that is more clear, consistent and unhurried.

“This last one did not go as smoothly as everyone would like,” said Bob McDonaugh, Tampa’s acting economic development administrator.

So officials met to discuss ways to refine the process for the future.

On July 25, several days after the Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commission approved the incentives, a top PricewaterhouseCoop­ers executive said the firm never considered moving its operating center out of Tampa.

That disclosure surprised several council members and commissioners who said they were led to believe that a then-unnamed financial services firm needed incentives to keep 1,633 jobs in Tampa.

State law allows the identities of companies to remain confidential while local officials negotiate incentives, but PricewaterhouseCoop­ers identified itself as the company after the subsidies were approved.

At Monday’s meeting, officials from the city and county met with executives from the nonprofit Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. and came up with at least four potential improvements:

• Giving city and county elected officials the same information in a standard format.

• Putting such requests on regular meeting agendas, giving elected officials time to review them in advance, instead of walking them on to the agendas just a day or two before the meeting as happened with the PricewaterhouseCoopers package.

• Having a staff member from the Economic Development Corp. on hand to answer questions. (EDC representatives were at the County Commission’s meeting, but didn’t speak.)

• Having the Economic Development Corp. provide elected officials with a briefing on the economic development process and how it works.

Those steps would help, City Council member Mary Mulhern said, but they wouldn’t have necessarily given elected officials the information they should have had on this project.

“We still don’t know whether they were planning to move or not,” said Mulhern, who has said that elected officials were misled.

Mulhern said local officials also need to work through other questions, including whether they should even offer incentives to companies for retaining existing jobs — as opposed to creating new ones — and whether the identities of the companies should remain confidential.

The City Council has asked its staff for a report on the process used to consider the incentive package. On Wednesday, the County Commission is expected to discuss the Pricewaterhouse­Coopers project at the request of Commissioner Sandra Murman.

After Monday’s meeting, county chief financial administrator Bonnie Wise would not say whether there will be a recommendation to proceed with the subsidy.

“Part of the problem is that we’re still under a confidentiality agreement right now,” she said.

“I think where we ended up is: This is still a good project, still a good company, good jobs.”

McDonaugh agreed, saying the proposal requires Pricewat­erhouseCoopers to invest in a new building with an estimated cost of $78 million to receive the incentives. Not only that, but the particulars of the incentives will come back in a detailed agreement for another vote.

The firm plans to move into the building, being constructed in West Shore, in 2013.

McDonaugh noted the city wouldn’t pay any incentives until 2017.

“We would have three or four years of property taxes before spending the first nickel,” he said. “The taxpayers are protected.”

Without saying the process broke down in this case, Wise said she expects officials involved in Monday’s meeting will sit down again at some point.

“We all want to coordinate and communicate better, which I think is always a good thing,” she said. “There’s always room for improvement.”

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