Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine Thursday announced that his office received 667 affidavits from owners of internet cafes. The affidavits were required as part of Am. Sub. H.B. 386 which put a moratorium on any new electronic sweepstakes parlors or internet cafés. The listed cafes include 7 in Marion County and 10 in Crawford County.
All sweepstakes establishments in existence and operating prior to the effective date of the legislation, which was June 11, 2012, were required to complete an affidavit of existence. The deadline to submit the affidavits to the Attorney General's Office was July 11, 2012.
The number reported today is more than twice as high as an earlier total of 280 tallied statewide by the Attorney General's Office staff in March 2012. In addition, the data from the affidavits is similar to the March study in that these cafes are primarily located north of Interstate I-70.
There are several Marion County cafes listed. The only one with an operating name was The Game Zone, 606 Deleware Avenue. Others were listed as operating at:
- 403 Silver Street
- 142 Olney Avenue
- 1614 Marion-Marysville Road
- 148 South Main Street
- 130 South State Street
One cafe was also listed at 367 West Main Street in Waldo.
Hardin, Morrow, and Wyandot Counties each have one cafe. Delaware County has two cafes. There are ten cafes listed in Crawford County.
"These internet cafes are multiplying at an alarming rate, and I again am encouraging the Ohio General Assembly to act swiftly to regulate them with the same scrutiny as other forms of gaming in Ohio," said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. "Ohioans currently have no way of knowing that these games are what the cafes report them to be or if they are being completely ripped off by the owners."
This huge number of parlors is capable of generating hundreds of millions of unregulated cash. Since there is no state regulation, licensing or oversight, there is no way to determine who is getting the money, where the money is going, whether any of these operators are felons, or whether any other criminal activity is funded by these proceeds.
DeWine first called for the regulation of internet cafes in March 2011 and has backed both House Bill 195 and Senate Bill 317 that are currently pending in the Ohio General Assembly. With the advent of "racinos" at racetracks and the new casinos that have opened in Cleveland and Toledo, many Ohioans may assume that all types of gambling are legal and regulated by the state. Dewine says that While racinos and casinos are, internet cafes are unregulated and likely illegal forms of gambling.
About Marion Online News
