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Dayton Daily News

Governor could decide fate of Internet cafes soon

Thursday, May 23, 2013

 

COLUMBUS — A bill to effectively ban Internet cafe sweepstakes parlors cleared the final hurdle Wednesday and is on its way to Gov. John Kasich’s desk.


The Miami Valley is home to an estimated 100 of the parlors also known as Internet cafes.

 

The Ohio Senate approved House Bill 7 in a 27-6 vote, a mix of Democrats and Republicans split on whether they consider the cafes an extension of gambling or employers of thousands of Ohioans. The House also split when it passed the bill in March in a 66-29 vote.

 

Internet cafes sell phone or Internet time that can be used on cafe computers to win prizes through slots-like games. The bill doesn’t make the cafes illegal, but restricts payouts to merchandise worth less than $10. Cafe owners said the limit would drastically discourage customers and put them out of business.

 

The bill also authorizes the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to investigate criminal activity involving any violation of Ohio gambling law. A Kasich spokesman said the governor will sign the bill and a second bill passed Wednesday that extends the current moratorium on new cafes.

 

Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, voted against the bill because he said it will eliminate 6,000 to 8,000 jobs statewide and lawmakers could have found a way to regulate the industry.

 

Seitz said the bill will not stop Internet cafes or another type of gambling from surfacing in their place.

 

“When you do not incentivize people to do the right thing, through a system of carefully controlled and regulated operations, there will be more gray-area operations that will pop up very swiftly thereafter,” Seitz said on the floor.

 

Senators who spoke in favor of the bill cited reports of corrupt activity including money laundering at cafes and Ohio’s history of letting the voters decide whether to expand gambling 

“Has anyone ever authorized statewide gambling in Ohio and, moving forward, is that the public policy we want for this state? I think the answer is no,” said Sen. Larry Obhof, R-Medina. 

Read the rest of the article at Dayton Daily News

 



 
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