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\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2013 Next to a massage parlor, a doughnut shop and a liquor store, more than two dozen people sat inside a darkened business in a strip mall dropping $2 bets on electronic games with names such as \u201cRobin Hood,\u201d \u201dMr. Millionaire\u201d and \u201cLuck of the Irish\u201d when Sacramento County sheriff\u2019s deputies paid a visit.<\/p>\n
\tThe operators of the business, Silk and Stars, promote it as one offering computers and Internet access to those who otherwise wouldn\u2019t have them. But along with silk-screened T-shirts, they provide customers with computerized versions of what are called \u201csweepstakes\u201d games.<\/p>\n
\tOperations like Silk and Stars are known as Internet sweepstakes cafes, a reference to their roots as storefronts where customers could access the Internet or make low-cost long-distance telephone calls. The businesses now feature dozens of computers where customers play video games that often simulate casino slot machines. The American Gaming Association estimates that they take in $10 billion a year nationwide.<\/p>\n
\tBut California law enforcement authorities have a different definition of this kind of business: gambling den. The raid earlier this month at Silk and Stars was the second time this year that deputies and code inspectors tried to shut down what they suspect is an illegal gambling operation in a blighted neighborhood of south Sacramento.<\/p>\n
\tThe attempt to crack down on what local authorities, state lawmakers and law enforcement agencies said is a growing problem throughout California has prompted legislation, a lawsuit by the Los Angeles city attorney and potentially conflicting state appeals court rulings that are headed to the California Supreme Court. Similar operations have opened in at least 19 states, according to a report released last fall by the American Gaming Association. Legislatures in some of those, including New York and Georgia, already have moved to ban them.<\/p>\n
\tPeople who run Internet sweepstakes cafes and their lawyers say law enforcement is overreaching in a bid to kill off the sweepstakes games, which they say are similar to those offered legally as a marketing tool by corporations.<\/p>\n
\tBut one California lawmaker who is trying to ban them said the sweepstakes cafes are a source of many social ills.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis is a prolific problem that we\u2019re seeing in our neighborhoods up and down the state, where we\u2019re seeing these illegal gaming sweepstakes cafes opening up with a myriad of problems and issues \u2026 of drugs, of prostitution, impacts to local legitimate businesses in these strip malls where these things are occurring,\u201d said Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield.<\/p>\n
\tSalas is the author of AB1439, a bill that would prohibit businesses whose customers use video monitors that simulate those found in casinos or play gambling-themed games in exchange for cash or prizes. The state attorney general, district attorneys and city attorneys could sue the businesses\u2019 operators under his bill, seeking civil penalties for violations.<\/p>\n
\tThe measure, which is awaiting consideration in the Senate, has the backing of 38 groups representing law enforcement and local government and 15 representing card rooms and Indian tribes with legal gambling operations that are losing money to the upstarts.<\/p>\n
\tAfter a recent raid at the Silk and Stars Internet sweepstakes cafe, where a sign above the 60 computer monitors read \u201cDaily Maximum Payout $500 A Day,\u201d a customer, neighborhood resident Khue Vang, said she had been trying to win gas money but abandoned the $10 she\u2019d wagered and the $5 she had won when the sheriff\u2019s deputies entered the establishment.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019m not coming back. I\u2019d rather go to Thunder Valley,\u201d she said, mentioning a Sacramento-area tribal casino.<\/p>\n
\tAttempts to reach Silk and Stars\u2019 owner by phone were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
\tInvestigations of the businesses involving California Bureau of Gambling Control agents have nearly doubled over the past two years, from 42 in 2012 to 80 last year. Authorities also have been turning to civil lawsuits.<\/p>\n
\tLos Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer sued North Carolina-based corporation Figure 8 Technologies in January on the grounds that it supplied five defunct sweepstakes cafes \u201cwith illegal gaming systems and lotteries that masquerade as lawful promotional sweepstakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tJohn Weston, a Los Angeles attorney representing the firm, said Figure 8 voluntarily stopped selling the software in California in December in response to what he called \u201cexpressions of hostility\u201d from authorities.<\/p>\n
\tPhillip Walker, who formed the Internet Cafe Association of California, said opponents are reacting to perceptions rather than reality.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOn the surface it looks like it\u2019s illegal,\u201d said Walker, owner of Oz Internet Cafe & Hub in Bakersfield. \u201cBut once you get down to the meat inside, it really isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe computers simulate slot machines and other casino games of chance. But instead of picking random winners, the computer games offer predetermined results in a way designed to catch and hold players\u2019 attention, said both Walker and attorney Weston, who also represents Oz.<\/p>\n
\tThat legal distinction is at the heart of decisions by appeals courts in Fresno and Sacramento that are headed to the California Supreme Court, which earlier this week agreed to hear the case.<\/p>\n
\tThe Sacramento-based 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled in 2003 that lottery vending machines dispensing Scratchers tickets do not fall under the definition of slot machines because the sequence of winning tickets is predetermined. The winner is the player who happens to be in line to buy that particular ticket.<\/p>\n
\tBy contrast, the Fresno-based 5th District Court of Appeal ruled in March that the computers used by the sweepstakes cafes are illegal because they exhibit \u201c(a)ll the trappings and experiences involved in playing traditional slot machines\u2026\u201d even though they also offer predetermined results.<\/p>\n
\tSalas said his bill would write the 5th District\u2019s ruling into law.<\/p>\n
\tWalker argued that Internet cafes serve customers who can\u2019t afford to travel or play at legal card rooms and casinos.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere\u2019s an 80-year-old couple who come in quite often. They say if it wasn\u2019t for the Internet cafe, they wouldn\u2019t have anything to do,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it was all rich people that were using Internet cafes, you wouldn\u2019t have an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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