Attorney: AVA is a legal business

Players purchase Internet access, not credits for a slot machine.

That is the explanation given by Kelly Mathis, the attorney for Affiliates of Allied Veterans, which owns more than 30 sweepstakes rooms across Florida, including one in Spring Hill.

He also doesn't like to hear AVA locations referred to as gaming rooms.

AVA sells Internet time and donates most of its revenue to charity, he said.

"AVA so far has been able to raise quite a bit of money," said Mathis.

Since AVA started opening affiliate sweepstakes rooms across Florida a few years ago, the organization has raised more than $5 million in donations, he said.

Players purchase Internet credits and play slot machine-style games on a computer terminal.

"We get a lot of attention because of the graphic animation on the screen," Mathis said. "It uses a spinning wheel that people associate with gambling. It makes people stop and say, 'Is that legal?' It's an initial reaction without appreciation or understanding the law behind it."

After expenses, roughly 80 percent of AVA's revenue goes toward ROTC scholarships, food banks, the Wounded Warrior Project and various veteran health care programs, Mathis said.

"First of all, what we do is completely compliant with Florida law," he said. "Players can win money as long as they don't pay anything to win that."

He equated it to the sweepstakes offered by soda or fast food companies, where purchases are not necessary to participate in the sweepstakes.

"You're paying for Internet time just like you would a Big Mac or a Coke at McDonalds," Mathis said.

He suggested players are not placing bets. The money they spend is for cyberspace. Whatever sites they choose to visit is up to them.

Most, if not all, who visit AVA at 7269 Forest Oaks Blvd. play the sweepstakes. The same goes for imitators, such as Win-City, Luck Duck and Treasure Cove.

For Assistant State Attorney Mark Simpson, how the money is used is moot as long as it's being collected illegally. He thinks AVA and similar businesses are gambling rooms and should be shut down.

"What you're doing up front is what matters," said Simpson, who has prosecuted cases in Ocala and currently has a case pending in Sumter County. "If you're engaged in illegal activity, then it doesn't matter where the money is going."

Most of the local sweepstakes businesses, at least five of them, have not filed game promotion registrations with the state. Such a move is mandatory for those offering rewards that exceed $5,000.

The only one that did recently was Treasure Cove LLC, located at 5117 U.S. 19, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The business had 70 computer terminals listed, but only one was filed.

"That promotion was closed (because) the $5,000 per terminal filing was not reached," according to the state.

Joyce L. Cheze, who owns the Treasure Cove property, refused to comment for this story.

The AVA affiliate in Spring Hill is managed by AVA Business Offices LLC, a local subcontractor, said Mathis.

A records check showed the owner of AVA Business Offices is John N. Cucciniello II.

Cucciniello also is the co-owner of the Wine Toad in Spring Hill. His business partners in that venture are Hernando County School Board member John Sweeney and Explorer K-8 Assistant Principal Vivian Sweeney.

Cucciniello was not available for comment. Efforts to contact the Sweeneys were unsuccessful.

AVA faces other legal matters. A greyhound betting parlor in Jacksonville is suing the AVA affiliates there because it considers them unlicensed gambling rings and, therefore, the parlor should not be in competition with another gambling entity that doesn't have a license. The suit was filed last year.

Mathis confirmed some AVA affiliates have had to close their doors for weeks at a time.

He said the Marion County locations had to suspend business for a few weeks because of raids that occurred at other sweepstakes rooms in the area.

Mathis thinks imitators are giving the business a bad name. They don't have the full understanding of the dos and don'ts of running a sweepstakes, he said.

"That's a concern we've had," said Mathis. "There's a right way to do it, and there are a lot of wrong ways to do it."