INDIANAPOLIS, IN and TALLAHASSEE, FL — Indiana has now adopted new policies that target to eliminate sweepstakes videogames, it will be properly regulated and with the help of the police. Florida is to follow since a representative has announced that they will modify a pending bill to do the same thing. Powerball lottery
It all started with a report from the Indianapolis Journal Gazette which reported that somehow the the sweepstakes games had plagued bars, taverns, restaurants and convenience stores across the state. So on the 29th September, the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission issued a notice to all licensed alcohol retailers that Internet sweepstakes games are illegal gambling devices that they must be removed. They have warned these premises that the state police has the right to remove and fine all the businesses that either own, operate or host these video sweepstakes games. Warnings will be issued to these establishments starting on the 15th of October. The type of games that are permitted in Indiana is called Type II gaming which include pull tabs, punch boards or tip-board games. Mega lottery
The company that operates these games in Indianapolis is called Promo Games Sweepstakes, an European company which expanded to Florida only last year. Lotteries
In Florida, Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff (R-Fort Lauderdale) and Rep. Erik Fresen (R-Miami) said are planning to introduce a bill in the state Legislature to legalize casino gambling in Miami-Dade and Broward counties but shut down most Internet cafés.
Bogandoff told announced that this bill would exempt an estimated 37 veterans halls that have statutory authority to operate sweepstakes games. A registered nonprofit group called Allied Veterans of the World is a prominent sweepstakes operator in Florida.
The Bogandoff-Fresen bill will be the second proposed measure to ban sweepstakes games in Florida. Earlier this year, state Rep. Scott Plakon (R-Longwood) and Sen. Steve Oelrich (R-Gainesville) introduced Electronic Machines and Devices for Sweepstakes Prohibited Act (HB 217).
That bill was tabled in the last session of the Legislature, but the sponsors have reintroduced it for the 2012 session.
The Florida House of Representatives staff have prepared a report about the state’s gambling and game market that which counts with an estimate of around 1,000 Internet cafés in operation. A business that is estimated to be around $1 billion.
