Editorials
State needs to shut down sweepstakes gambling
Hernando Today
Published: December 17, 2010
The issue: Sen. Mike Fasano's legislation to regulate gaming rooms.Published: December 17, 2010
Our opinion: We applaud Sen. Fasano for trying to do something, but these predatory sweepstakes parlors need to be shut down.
Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, is proposing legislation to regulate gaming halls by requiring them to pay a $100 fee to the state for every promotion that exceeds $1.
The law is needed, Fasano says, to make it harder for some gaming room businesses to stay afloat or, at the very least, keep them more in line with the law.
With more than 350 known sweepstakes parlors across the state, fewer than 100 were actively registering their sweepstakes. The current law requires the $100 fee on sweepstakes of $5,000 or more and, obviously, most of the gaming parlors are not reporting to the state or paying the fee.
The intent of the new law would be that more businesses would be monitored and more of the distributed winnings would be counted. The fees would give the government the ability to ensure the sweepstakes rooms are run properly and legally.
The new $1 minimum doesn't mean a gaming room owner is required to pay a licensing fee each time a customer walks out with a pocket full of cash. Customers use their phone or Internet cards to play slot-machine-styled games. If they win, their money gets pulled from a large pot - sometimes more than $1 million depending on the size of the business.
Once the promotion expires, the sweepstakes business starts a new one. Promotions can last for weeks or months, depending on how many players play and how much money is spent.
The problem with Fasano's measure is that it would essentially create a new bureaucracy to keep track of the gambling halls and make sure regulations are being followed.
It's an admirable effort by Fasano, but lacks what's really needed to end this scourge on society. We need a law that will shut down these gambling businesses for good.
These so-called Internet cafes are a plague on the public, especially seniors, who apparently don't understand that the gambling halls operate outside state regulations and could simply be ripping off unsuspecting customers.
While there may be some that operate legitimately and pay out monetary awards fairly, we suspect most of them are rigged in favor of the owners, who are making a killing off what's essentially gambling.
Fasano is on the right track; he just needs to take the legislation a leap forward to close down these unregulated gambling halls once and for all.