Internet Cafe Gambling California
Many residents of Kern County, California, prevented from one illegal activity, internet cafes, appear to be turning to another, online gaming.
From Florida to Ohio, to California, Texas and Hawaii CMC Gaming Systems now offers some of the lowest rates in the industry! CMC is proud to announce exciting FREE new marketing tools to help promote your Internet Cafe. The California blitz on illegal internet cafe sweepstake-style gambling continued Tuesday when police armed with search warrants simultaneously raided two internet cafes in this small city, charging three employees and seizing evidence that included 60 computers.
According to Phillip Walker of the Internet Café Association of California, interviewed by Pechanga.net, “It’s all over the place that you can do online gaming.” He said it’s a matter of going onto the site, getting an ID and opening up a real money account.
However, the FBI warns that you shouldn’t do that. It points out that transferring money to gambling sites is illegal.
Walker contends that so-called “games of skill” online don’t clearly violate federal law.
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – They look suspiciously like illegal casinos: Computer cafes where you can take your chances on winning cash. Now, one lawmaker is cracking down, proposing a ban that could wipe them out for good.
Critics call it illegal gambling, but the people running these businesses, which are cropping up all over the Bay Area and the state, claim they are really just internet cafes where customers can choose to play games and win cash.
“I am absolutely satisfied as an attorney that the software program and the business does not in any way violate any California gaming or gambling law, period,” attorney John Weston told KPIX 5 last November.
Internet Cafe Sweepstakes
Weston represents cafes in Oakland, Hayward and San Francisco, as well as the software company that makes the programs they use.
His clients’ winning streak may have run out though, because of a new bill proposed in the legislature this week.
“AB1439 goes after the heart of these illegal internet cafes,” said the bill’s sponsor, newly elected Assemblyman Rudy Salas. “ It says ‘if you’re operating a game that mimics anything like a casino slot machine, that’s illegal.’”
Salas says the cafes are attracting prostitutes and criminals wherever they go, and it’s time to stop them. Already a handful of Bay Area cities are going after the cafes: Hayward will ban the gaming software starting next week; San Francisco is suing a café in the Excelsior to try to shut it down; Oakland city officials will meet next week to talk about putting a moratorium on the cafes.
But Salas says he hopes his bill will be the last word statewide.
“This bill that I introduced is going to make that gray area very crystal clear, black and white,” he said.
Internet Cafe Gambling Nc
It could be months before the legislation is approved. Until then, local ordinances could certainly pose a threat to these cafes, but it will be up to each city to enforce them. In Ohio, a similar state law was passed. It shut down all of the cafes within a few months.