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Law director: Cafes might be shut down
By jeanne starmack
campbell
Council can consider whether it wants to allow businesses that feature Internet gaming in the city, but police might shut them down, says the city’s law director.
Mayor George Krinos told council at its caucus meeting Wednesday that he got three calls from people who would like to open Internet cafes, which let customers buy Internet time to go on websites and play games. Krinos said the city could make money off the cafes in permit fees.
The owners of the establishments say the games don’t break state gambling laws because they are sweepstakes games, such as McDonald’s Monopoly game.
Because the winners are predetermined, they argue, they aren’t gambling.
Law Director Mark Kolmacic said Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has issued an opinion that the games are illegal gambling.
“‘Sweepstakes’ is another creation to circumvent the gambling laws,” Kolmacic said.
He said Paul Gains, Mahoning County prosecutor, sent a letter and copies of Watkins’ opinion to prosecutors throughout Mahoning County.
“There are such businesses operating in Boardman and Youngstown,” Kolmacic said. “Some are taking the approach, ‘Let’s make as much money as we can before courts declare them illegal,’” he added. “If council wants to allow them in, you have that right.”
When Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker sought an opinion from the state attorney general’s office in September after a resident wanted to open a cafe, he was told the office was waiting for the state Supreme Court to decide a case out of Pickaway County that pitted the attorney general against a gaming company.
“We hope the court uses this case to clarify the law in this area.” wrote Kevin McIver, chief of the office’s Opinions Section.
But it did not, Holly Hollingsworth, a spokeswoman for the office, said Thursday.
The Oct. 14 decision capped prize values in the gaming parlors at $10, but the decision was too narrow, Hollingsworth said. It is still left up to local law-enforcement officials to decide if what is going on in an Internet cafe is illegal under state law. “And we can step in and help them determine if what is going on is illegal,” she said.
The Struthers council decided not to amend the city’s gambling ordinance to accommodate the cafes.
Robert Burnside, chairman of council’s Legislation and Finance Committee, said the resident could open the cafe if she wanted, but if a detective determined there was gambling going on there, it would be shut down.
Kolmacic said Thursday he and police Chief Gus Sarigianopoulos would take the same path.
“The chief and I talked about this before,” he said. “We’re not encouraging it or welcoming it. You operate it at your own risk. If it’s determined to be gambling, we’ll shut it down.”