City Looks to Continue Internet Café Moratorium

The city of Avon Lake’s Economic Development committee voted to approve continuing a six-month moratorium on Internet or "sweepstakes" cafes another six months. will need to decide in the upcoming weeks to support that moratorium.

On Feb. 28, 2011, City Council on the creation, operation and/or development of Internet gaming/sweepstakes cafes anywhere in Avon Lake.

At the time, Councilman Dan Bucci said the legislation was not aimed at permanently banning the cafes, but would allow the city to see how the state and other cities react to them.

“We want to get a handle on what other communities have done and allow the state to review the issue and give municipalities guidance," he said.

Bucci echoed that sentiment on Sept. 13, saying he didn’t oppose or support the cafes, but felt that waiting another six months would allow the city to get a better idea of where the state stands on the issue.

The controversial cafés have sprouted in cities throughout Ohio, including Sheffield Lake, Lorain and Brook Park. Internet cafe operators say the operation is gaming and is not gambling, which is regulated in Ohio. Cafe patrons buy pre-paid phone cards used to play online computer games. They can win more Internet time and points they can they use to enter sweepstakes and win money.

Supporters say sweepstakes are like scratch-off lottery games with a pre-determined outcome, and are legal.

Councilman David Kos said the state had placed the issue on the “back burner” in the past six months.

“We put the moratorium in place to wait for guidance from the state,” Kos said. “We still haven’t received that guidance. It doesn’t look like anything imminent is going to happen.”

Ohio does not have a sweepstakes law. Internet cafés are not specifically covered under the state’s gambling laws and cities throughout the state are waiting to see what the state determines.

Avon Lake’s assistant law director, David Graves, said the moratorium will have to end at some point.

Graves also serves as the prosecutor for Sheffield Lake, which currently has three operating Internet cafes.

“We haven’t had any problems with them,” Graves said.

Graves said one legal opinion he was aware of stated that communities may be acting erroneously in prohibiting the cafes and placing moratoriums that prevented the business.

Councilman Tim Rush agreed with the moratorium saying it might make sense to look at other cities’ legislation and consider “the best of the best” in the next six months.

Avon Lake Mayor KC Zuber said he’s had several people approach him about putting in cafes and supported considering some sort of legislation.

“The committee will need to put together some legislation,” Zuber said, adding it would make sense to get legislation in place in the next six months.