By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: October 19, 2011
Updated: October 19, 2011 – 6:12 PM
TAMPA —
Hillsborough County may soon place a moratorium on Internet sweepstakes cafés, the proliferating strip mall parlors that offer computer games resembling video slot machines.
County commissioners voted 7-0 today to have the county attorney draw up an ordinance that would require the cafes to get county licenses and be regulated by county inspectors. Once the existing cafés are licensed, no new parlors would be allowed to open until May 1, 2012, when the Florida Legislature concludes its regular session.
Commissioners will get a look at the ordinance Nov. 2 and then schedule a public hearing for Nov. 16. They can pass the new regulations at that meeting.
The moratorium motion came from Commissioner Sandy Murman, who considers the cafés illegal gambling houses that need to be shut down. County Sheriff David Gee agrees, and has sent written notice to café operators saying he will prosecute them if they are participating in illegal gambling.
Café owners and lawyers representing them say they are offering a legal sweepstakes in which the winners are predetermined, not chosen as the result of the computer video games. They sell Internet time on computers and patrons get phone cards that allow them to play games that look like slot machines.
Murman put a May 1 end date on the moratorium to see whether the Legislature will act to regulate the sweepstakes cafés. There are several bills already filed, some of which would leave it up to local governments to decide whether to allow the parlors to stay open.
“Let’s take care of our own people in our own county right now and see what happens” with the Legislature, Murman said.