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Florida House Passes Bill To Ban "Internet Cafes"
squiggleslash writes "Concerned about their use as fronts for gambling operations, the Florida legislature passed a law banning Internet cafes. The law appears to be a reaction in part to the recent stepping down of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, embroiled in a scandal involving a company that operates Internet Cafes. More ordinary cafes with Wi-fi, where you supply your own computer (such as Starbucks), are not affected by the ban." The nomenclature here is confusing; the bill (PDF) (summary) is clearly aimed only at "cafes" that are essentially gambling venues; an Internet cafe wouldn't violate the proposed rule merely by providing computers. Whatever you think of prohibitions on gambling among consenting adults, the bill itself is sort of amusing for its very specific loopholes for bingo and "reverse vending machines."
Who has actually had an "internet cafe" in the past 10 years? Or do they consider Starbucks and free wifi an "internet cafe"?
Honestly, you can buy a useable used laptop for around $35.00 and then go to mc donalds for free internet. Are they going to ban McDonalds? That would be one thing that would do some actual good.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
There is a simpler solution, though. Ban the Florida legislature.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Wouldn't this basically make libraries illegal? Once again, Florida, paving the way for stupidity since 2000.
submitter is playing a bit fast and loose in the description here... the law is *centrally* concerned with gambling, and any operation not involved with gambling but that does provide computers for the public's use is completely untouched by this - not just places like Starbucks. Not sure why the outrage, really. If gambling is illegal in Florida, this closes existing loopholes that some gambling houses used to skirt the law. It doesn't affect non-gambling "internet cafes" as they are traditionally known.
If gambling is already illegal...why do they need another law? Perhaps they need to fix their gambling statute instead.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
These places aren't about internet access at all, they are plain and simple gambling establishments.
If you want to legalize gambling, fine, do it. But, letting it happen this way just leads to sad little strip-mall locations where poor people gather to lose what little money they have in the name of "entertainment."
this, like most laws, clarifies and expands on an existing statute... so, essentially, they're doing exactly what you propose.
This is how they are trying to fix the gambling statutes... there's a "sweepstakes" loophole in most states' laws that these internet cafe' operations have used to end-run traditional gambling bans.
I'm not a huge fan of banning something for everyone because a minority of miscreants are incapable of using it responsibly. The lawmakers, in their seemingly endless struggle to legislate every hot button topic that reaches the news feeds, make themselves and their silly rules less relevant with each new weighty tome of regulations. It's not that human kind has moved beyond the need for codes of conduct, far from it, but once everything is against the law we are all lawbreakers.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Yeah, the summary in this is pretty awful. That is like saying, we are going to ban cars because people might use them for something other than driving. How about, let's ban Baseball Bats, because people use them for assault rather than baseball.
I thought the reason Carroll stepped down was because of her connection with Allied Veterans, the supposed charity for veterans that turned out to be a huge scam?
They aren't banning people from assembling. They are banning the operation of a particular type of business. Gambling isn't the problem they are trying to solve, this particular form of it is. If the government is going to be in the business of banning things, they should do it as narrowly as possible.
I'm not a huge fan of banning something for everyone because a minority of miscreants are incapable of using it responsibly.
Pollution laws? Money laundering laws? Driving laws? Building codes? Product liability laws? Noise ordinances?
The miscreants are not as small of a minority as you think.
Hell, laws against public drunkenness precede the founding of the USA.
but once everything is against the law we are all lawbreakers.
This won't be a problem until enforcement catches up with the law.
Once that happens, public backlash tends to get laws rolled back.
Red light cameras are a great example of over enforcement leading to massive pushback.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Outrage sells just as much as sex - and since there's no nudity on Slashdot... outrage is the only demographic left to pander to. Seriously, you've never noticed the number of badly written summaries and stories published seemingly just to fan the flames and provide an opportunity for a Two Minute Hate?
What I don't get is why the USA is so uptight about "gambling"? If they were really serious about getting rid of big-time gambling operations, they really should ban the stock market and insurance.
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
here here! I second the motion!
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP! "No limitations, no boundaries, there is no reason for them."
These things have been around a long time. I remember when one first popped up about 8 years ago. My friends and I went to it and were amazed that they were legal. Instead of straight cash they paid out visa gift cards. Then about 4 years ago the zoning board approved one in my immediate area. Once they realized the name "arcade" was a cover for gambling, they immediately rescinded.
The reason this is news is because our lieutenant governor was involved with a company that managed to take it to a new low. They operated these things under the guise that it was some sort of organization helping veterans. I think that was the last straw. After the bust, this legislation was introduced and quickly passed. It was completely reactionary and I'm sure poorly written due to the quickness with which it passed.
As I said before, these things have been around for years. I must have at least a dozen near mean in the counties that allow it. Everyone knew they were shady, so no one can act like they are surprised by their existence.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
Pollution laws? Money laundering laws? Driving laws? Building codes? Product liability laws? Noise ordinances?
All of these are examples of laws that outlaw irresponsible/hurtful behaviors, not entire segments of commerce to outlaw a specific behavior.
So their logic is that because something could be 'abused' (laws against Internet gambling are idiotic as well), we should ban it entirely? I guess we should ban... everything in existence!
Let's see. A STATE GOVERNMENT official is involved in a criminal operation that involves cyber-cafes. So the STATE's response is to ban the cyber-cafe's!. Yup. Makes perfect sense.
Is that where, e.g. someone inserts a candy bar and $0.75 is dispensed?
'Your brain is God.' -- Dr. Timothy Leary
They had to make a lot of noise about it because the lieutenant governor and a trashy company got caught screwing veterans. This was for the "someone should do something about that" crowd.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
which, for the poor, this type of business is useful and helpful. So it must be an attack on the poor.
Regardless of if you can gamble at an Internet cafe, the business serves other uses.
It's like banning car rental places because some people use cars to commit crimes.
They're using their grammar skills there.
Lawmakers fail to understand "the Internet".
UPDATE! - Sensational title deliberately conflicts with reality, as explained in TFA.
Film at eleven.
this bans gambling... those places used the internet cafe name but they are not what you think as an internet cafe...
First time I was in one, I couldn't believe it was legal. But by careful observation of the operation, it was clear that they were exploiting loopholes, and the verbiage they use to do this is quite amusing. It's not gambling, they're "sweepstakes". You don't "cash out", you "redeem your sweepstakes prizes/winnings/internet minutes/whatever". It's not video poker, it's "video sweepstakes". Etc, etc. This is how these places work:
;)
They are typically located in strip mall type buildings, and will be called Internet Cafe, Business center, Sweepstakes etc. You walk in, and it's basically a large room with say 50 PCs running XP on a LAN, and there's a manned booth (or atm type device) where you can deposit $ into your account. Say we go to the counter and give the attendant $20 for our account number 123456. Got to a PC, log into it w/your account# 123456, and you have a screen showing various things you can do: Internet browsing, blah, blah, blah, and Sweepstakes. So you have "credits" (or "internet minutes") in your account now: the $20.00 we deposited is 2000 credits (or minutes or whatever euphemism).
The games are basically flash games w/casino themes: all types of slot machine types, keno, w/all kinds of goofy themes, running full screen on the PC, kiosk style. There's mini-games to keep you hooked (break up the monotony of click, spin, click, spin). The mini game will always give you $2.00 to say $50.00, and the player immediately has this credited to their account, and inevitably loses it shortly thereafter.
So they're basically slot machines where you gamble "credits" as I like to call them, but that would be illegal. So they call them sweepstakes machines where you play for "internet minutes" which can be "redeemed" (never cashed out!) for dollars.
NC has tried a couple times to ban these establishments, but they just switch out the games and call them something else, say play for phone card minutes, and they just keep going. It's just a matter of time before they get forced out by the state though. It's inevitable; we can't have those "educational" lotto dollars being spent elsewhere, now can we?
There is a simpler solution, though. Ban the Florida legislature.
Band them (so they can't reproduce).
TTFY ;)
So which is it?
1) I drop in a soda and get 75 cents back.
2) I walk past a machine carrying a soda, the machine spits 3 quarters in my face, gets mad since I don't give it the soda, cusses, then grabs me and shakes me until I topple over spilling the soda, then just sits there innocently until the next victim arrives.
Yes. Allied Veterans was running Internet Cafes and claiming the profits were going to veterans.
at least the cherry master are up front about being slots games and they stay on them for amusement only (it's the hidden knock off switches and under the table pay outs on them)
In some places like WI they are some what legal as well as coin pushers.
Banning gambling is pretty useless in Florida. We have many casinos already on reservations, and there are always the boat casinos going out into international waters.
In the past election there was a bill to allow gambling in the county. I don't know how it went, but places to gamble are not hard to find.
Red light cameras are a great example of over enforcement leading to massive pushback.
And then there's the fact that they appear to *increase* accidents at the intersections where they are placed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html
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Only the corrupt parts
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It's presumably for the type of machine that buys back cell phones.
http://www.ecoatm.com/
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
If gambling is already illegal...why do they need another law? Perhaps they need to fix their gambling statute instead.
The same reason why gun laws prohibit felons from owning guns, etc...yet the need is seen to pass more laws. They don't need to fix the statute, they need to enforce the laws that are already on the books.
Name one thing that was banned that made your lives better.........
Murder.
Apparently few people here realize what these places actually are. You drive around any Florida town right now (I'm a Florida resident), and you see on nearly every corner, a "Internet Sweepstakes" or "Internet Cafe". These aren't the internet cafes of old that we remember where you can pay for an hour to surf the web. They are gambling estabilishments that exploit a loophole in gambling law. They only call themselves "internet cafes" to make it seem innocuous. These places have also become a turn-key, get-rich-quick scheme. That's why you see so many blighting the landscape. They're trash. Pure trash. And they're taking advantage of loopholes hoping no one will notice. I for one am glad for the proposed ban. Now if we can only ban check cashing and payday loan places, we'd be a hell of a lot better off.
The same reason why gun laws prohibit felons from owning guns, etc...yet the need is seen to pass more laws. They don't need to fix the statute, they need to enforce the laws that are already on the books.
No, it's not the same reason. This is to fix a loophole in the existing FL gambling laws that some businesses are using to run gambling establishments. A hypothetical equivalent version would be that while it's illegal to sell a gun to a felon, the law would allow a felon to buy a ticket in a raffle where the grand prize is a gun. The business then only sells one ticket in that particular raffle and the ticket costs the same price as the retail price of the gun.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
most poor people end up working a hell of a lot harder than "non-poor". Falling under the poverty line and living paycheck to paycheck doesn't mean you're not poor.
They're using their grammar skills there.
It is about shutting down small business. In one stroke of a pen the Republican-controlled legislature eliminated 10,000 jobs. The state runs a lottery which is so crooked it should be described as a tax on the stupid. There are dog tracks and horse track and casinos. But a small business is "evil gambling." If gambling is wrong, shut down the Florida Lottery. But don't run a gambling operation and tell me internet gambling is somehow worse than the crooked lottery you run.
There used to be nudity on Slashdot, even if it was only a text description of it.
Naked, petrified Natalie Portman with hot grits and all......
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Reverse vending machine :-)
I have the mental image of a machine in which you insert a packet of Doritos and out comes 70 cents.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
...would be political suicide.
Read the article! It's all right there. "Cyber cafes" here are nothing more than unregulated casinos. They answer to no one, have no obligation to any sort of transparency. There places are scum that hide behind an innocent name and try to pass off taking money as charitable donations. Actual cyber cafes are unaffected.
Read the article! It's all right there. "Cyber cafes" here are nothing more than unregulated casinos. They answer to no one, have no obligation to any sort of transparency. There places are scum that hide behind an innocent name and try to pass off taking money as charitable donations. Actual cyber cafes are unaffected.
Don't be silly, it's not proper behavior to RTFA on SlashDot before commenting!
Seriously, however, I hate sloppy-slanty reporting. If they're painting all cybercafes with the same tar brush regardless of whether they are casino cafes or not, the headline should have gone whole hog and simply claimed "Florida Legislature outlaws Cafes".
Marijuana, gambling, incandescent light bulbs, alcohol (since unbanned), machine guns, COX-2 inhibitors, pseudoephedrine (pseudobanned), Cuban cigars.... Oh, you meant the BAN made our lives better.... um, that's a bit harder. Leaded gasoline, maybe?
Seriously, not the same thing. The "internet cafe" is just a name. It's a big room with a bunch of slot machines. you use them to win Calling Cards (the kind you used to use to make long distance phone calls), and then trade the Cards for money once you're done. They call them internet cafes to skirt the law against gambling.
Since gambling is against the law in Florida, then the State Government needs to BAN THE LOTTERY BECAUSE IT IS GAMBLING. Definition of Gambling is: gambled gambling Definition of GAMBLE intransitive verb 1 a : to play a game for money or property b : to bet on an uncertain outcome 2: to stake something on a contingency : take a chance transitive verb 1: to risk by gambling : wager Since people spend a dollar or whatever to gain the winnings of a Lottery, it is considered GAMBLING. To allow the Lottery is to Allow GAMBLING. If the Lottery is Legal, then so is GAMBLING. Stupid is as stupid does.
I live near Jacksonville, Fl and followed this on the local news. The "cafes" seem to be highly profitable. The state could just take over operation of them. More revenue for the state and people will gladly give it to them. They could sell lotto tickets for even more money.
Does this law mean that MacDonalds, Subways, Coffee shops, and other eateries, and libraries must not provide free internet service?
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
The average person breaks something like 10 laws on a daily basis.
--- If the bible proves the existence of God, then Superman comics prove the existence of Superman.
ding ding ding, we have a winner here
This is more than just gambling. The "internet cafes" are suposed to benefit non-profit organizations. In the same manner that fundraiser casinos are created for charity. However, the owners of these gambling rings were pocketing all of the proceeds. Yes, there are many places to gamble in Florida. But strip malls are not one of them. Go to a port and ride a boat, or go to a native american reserve. There are no shortages of either.
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