Daytona Beach considering moratorium on Internet cafes - Daytona Beach News-Journal

DAYTONA BEACH -- Daytona Beach could soon become the latest area city to impose a moratorium on new permits for Internet cafes.

With growing suspicions that the establishments are barely regulated gambling operations that attract crime, city commissioners are slated to decide in November whether to set up a six-month moratorium on issuing permits for them.

The timeout would allow city staff to study the criteria for issuing permits and regulating the businesses. The moratorium wouldn't affect the 10 gaming parlors already operating in Daytona Beach.

John McGuinness, a member of Daytona Beach's Planning Board, said city staff told his board at their meeting last week that no permits are pending for any games of skill. The Planning Board gave its nod of approval to the moratorium.

Internet cafes typically sell either web-surfing time or phone cards providing players with credits to play casino-style games for cash prizes. The operations use computers that display columns of spinning designs that resemble casino slot machines.

Parlor operators argue their games don't equate to gambling. They say they're more akin to McDonald's Monopoly game or Coke Rewards, a game that gives players codes from soda bottles they can input on a website to get points to enter sweepstakes.

Managers at two local Internet cafes, one in Daytona Beach and one in South Daytona, both said they're under orders not to comment to the media. An owner of one of the cafes and an attorney for the other could not be reached for comment.

The state Department of Agriculture regulates the operations and maintains they're not gambling establishments.

"We in law enforcement consider those gambling halls," countered Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood. "If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, in my book it's a duck."

Chitwood said, "There's really no regulation" and "they get around gambling laws."

Unless state law changes, local law enforcement will be powerless to do much, Chitwood said.

"We're concerned about the proliferation of these," Chitwood said. "They're just popping up like weeds."

South Daytona Police Chief Bill Hall has fought to get rid of Internet cafes for the past few years to no avail.

"I have been adamantly opposed since we got our first one in 2007," Hall said. "I've done everything I know how to do and they're still here."

Hall is convinced they're gambling meccas that should be illegal.

"It's not good for our communities," Hall said.

Hall did concede he hasn't had any particular problems with South Daytona's lone parlor, the 2032 Internet Café and Sweepstakes on Ridgewood Avenue.

A parlor in Seminole County, however, was the scene of a shootout in April between robbers and a security guard, who killed one of the intruders. In Volusia County, there have been armed robberies and thefts of money and purses at some of the businesses, investigators say.

Palm Coast, Deltona and Port Orange have all put moratoriums on permits for the parlors, although Port Orange's has now expired. Orange City and Volusia County are regulating where they can operate.

Daytona Beach Shores and Ponce Inlet have banned them. South Daytona has one Internet café, and an ordinance that prohibits any more from opening.

Wednesday night, the Bunnell City Commission talked about Internet cafes in their town but made no decisions about whether to make changes.

Jacksonville has limited the cafes' locations and hours of operation, and requires background checks on the owners. Seminole County considers the parlors illegal and is fighting in court to forbid them.

02 Oct, 2011

--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEgCrfItz2BDjr3UU-AyhPV3aIGNw&url=http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/10/02/daytona-beach-considering-moratorium-on-internet-cafes.html
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com