Sheriff scrutinizes sweepstakes cafés

Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats said he is taking a hard look at sweepstakes cyber cafés to decide whether they are legal, even though some courts in Florida have found such operations are breaking no laws.

"We currently have four over here, maybe another one getting ready to open up," the sheriff said. "We are doing an assessment of those facilities to see if they are in violation and if they are, we will be sending them a letter."

Complicating the matter is this: One of the cafés belongs to a state representative.

Coats said that despite the proliferation of such cafés across the state — hundreds have opened over the past few years — he believes they're illegal.

"The law is clear," Coats said. "Based on the legal advice that I'm getting, of course, it takes expert testimony about the operation of equipment and how it works, we still see it as gambling."

The legality of the cafés has been challenged before, and the courts have ruled that because they operate under a sweepstakes rule, as opposed to games of chance, sweepstakes cyber cafés are legal.

In Hillsborough County, such cafés operate without much scrutiny from law enforcement. Hillsborough sheriff's undercover deputies occasionally drop in on the establishments, checking to see if there is any illegal activity, but seldom is any action taken.

Three years ago, Tampa police arrested two employees of a cyber café on Nebraska Avenue, charging them with keeping a gambling house, but the state eventually dropped the charges. The owner of the establishment was never charged.

Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman Larry McKinnon said the department hasn't gotten any complaints about any of the cyber cafés in the county.

In Pasco County, a handful of cyber cafés exist, said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.

"We continue to monitor such establishments, and they are adept at changing the way they do their operations," he said. "It has to be a continuous collaboration between us and the state attorney's office, looking at case law to see what's legal and what's illegal."

The cafés typically feature rows of computer stations linked to a server that hosts several sweepstakes-type games. The customer pays for a calling card — typically a $20 card buys Internet access for about an hour — giving the customer time to play the games during that time.

Coats said he hasn't gotten any specific complaints or reports of criminal activity.

One of the four cafés belongs to Florida Rep. Peter Nehr, R-Palm Harbor, who opened Nehr's Fun City Sweepstakes in March.

"I can appreciate Sheriff Coats investigating complaints that come into his office about violations of the law," Nehr said, "and I welcome the opportunity to meet with the sheriff."

Nehr said when he was thinking about investing in the business, he talked to Coats.

Nehr said Coats had reservations about the legality of the business model but couldn't provide any solid statutes or case law.

The representative pointed to two gambling cases out of Marion County. One defendant was acquitted by a judge, he said, and the other by a jury.

"After that," Nehr said, "I decided that this appears to me to be a legal industry. When I opened, I didn't expect any kind of problems."

Such cafés have proliferated in Florida over the past few years. Nehr said there are about 1,000 in the state right now.

He suspects if complaints are being filed, they are coming not from customers of the cafés, but from "people against gambling or those who have a moral situation with gambling itself. It is my opinion that the courts have found my retail business model not to be gambling."

A proposed bill to shut down sweepstakes cafés never made it to a vote this past legislative session. Nehr expects lawmakers next year will move to place regulations on the industry.

He said he favors regulation over a ban.

He said his customers enjoy the business. "They don't want us to close. It's a social environment in which they spend time talking to their friends. We've never had any problems."

He said he likely will challenge any order from the sheriff to close his café.

"I will have my attorneys talk to his attorneys and see what's going on," Nehr said.

"I'm not doing anything illegal."

He said Coats' announcement that he will look into the legality of the cyber cafés "took me by complete surprise."

The sheriff also said he is concerned about tracking the money that goes into the cafés' cash registers.

"There is little regulation," Coats said, "little oversight here."

He said he had hoped the lawmakers would adopt legislation that would clear up any ambiguities in the law, but the session ended with no action taken on either the House or Senate bills.

Coats said his investigators will delve into the cafés over the next week.

kmorelli@tampatrib.com

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