Cafe Owner after House Internet Ban Vote: 'What a Sad Day for My People'

HB 155, the bill banning electronic games at Internet cafes, passed the Florida House 108-7 as anticipated, with no eleventh hour theatrics.

"I think they were all talked out on the issue," Daytona arcade owner Scranton Phillips said of House members. "I knew we were history the day Lieutenant Governor (Jennifer) Carroll resigned."

Carroll resigned after she was interrogated by authorities as part of a statewide investigation into alleged illegal gaming by a charity, Allied Veterans of the World. AVW owns numerous Internet cafes. The investigation already has resulted in 57 arrests around Florida.

Supporters, including the majority of the state business community, say all the bill does is to clarify existing law for games of chance. Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, the sponsor of the House bill, has insisted that Internet sweepstakes cafes -- where patrons play games of chance and winners take home "prizes" instead of cash -- should have been illegal all along.

"The Senate is going to do the same thing," Phillips said. "A lot of people are going to be out of work and a lot of lonely people are going to have nowhere to go to have fun and socialize. What a sad day for my people."