In the battle over Internet cafes, lawmakers were the big winners

Looking to cash in

State lawmakers were the top cash-prize winners in Ohio’s protracted fight to ban Internet sweepstakes cafés and the illegal gambling and crime they inflicted upon communities.

In all, legislative campaign coffers netted more than $1 million from café supporters and opponents and their lobbyists as various moratoriums, regulations and bans for the cafes were debated between 2011 and 2013. The flurry of campaign cash that was in play at the Statehouse was detailed by Northeast Ohio Media Group in a “Follow the Money” analysis last week.

The politicians’ indecision paid off. The longer they pondered, the more time supporters and opponents had to write checks. Why be hasty?

Indeed, as action heated up in 2012 and 2013 — with bills being introduced, debated, amended, killed or passed — the café lobby and its casino competitors sugared up both Democrats and Republicans.

For instance, as the moratorium was considered between April and June 2012, Internet-café owners who’d never donated to a legislative campaign began doing so.

Meanwhile, café opponents donated more than $19,000 to lawmakers, the analysis found.

In all, the legal-gaming interests and their supporters gave state legislators $423,000 in campaign donations during the debate.

Meanwhile, café owners and their lobbyists donated at least $120,000. That’s an impressive amount raised in a short time by a group that portrayed itself as “mom and pop” shops.

The cafés operated by selling phone cards or Internet time which came with credits that could be played on slot-machine-like video games to reveal pre-determined prizes. The more phone or Web time people bought, the more play credits they earned. It became pretty obvious that people didn’t care much about accumulating years’ worth of phone time; they wanted prizes.

Unlike the legal gaming, including the casinos and state lottery, the cafes had sneaked into the state by the hundreds without a vote of the people. They operated without any regulatory oversight and had no charitable purpose.

In April 2013, events would force the Senate to suddenly reverse course and embrace a ban.

On April 17, Cuyahoga County raids by law enforcement netted damning evidence of an out-of-state gambling syndicate and of a plan to influence lawmakers. One item seized, a memo from an Internet-café software company lobbyist, outlined the need to write $250 checks to 24 state lawmakers and donate $1,000 to the Senate Republican campaign fund.

Lawmakers returned the donations.

And on April 23, Ohio’s top law-enforcement officials sat down with Senate Republicans and outlined the illegalities involved with the cafes, including moneylaundering.

At last, the Senate dusted off the stalled House Bill 7 and passed it with impressive speed last May, effectively closing the cafés, by limiting prizes to $10 and banning cash payouts.

Since then, the legislature hasn’t had the stomach for stronger legislation to close loopholes. Some operations similar to Internet cafés, calling themselves skill games, continue.

No wonder. With the possibilities still in play, lawmakers might be hoping for another jackpot.