Stop the presses, senators! You want to ban Internet cafes, but do you really want perfectly legal senior arcades to go down with them?
That can't be your intent.
On the other hand, you tacked senior arcades onto the ban the night before you voted on the bill. Sneaky.
Also sneaky is slipping the proposed legislation, SB 1030, into an 8 a.m. Tuesday Rules and Calendar Committee meeting, leaving affected senior citizens -- some of them in their 80s and 90s -- all-through-the-night bus rides if they want to speak at the meeting. And, many of them do.
I have on my voice recorder from earlier meetings Chairman Garrett Richter, R-Naples and other members of the Senate Gaming Committee repeatedly saying "it is not our intention to disturb any legal business in Florida."
Senior arcades are legal businesses. Theyoperate in strict accordance with Florida Statute 849.161, which governs all amusement games and amusement arcades, and have done so since 1984. In fact, in 2006 their legality was reaffirmed.
The machines in Internet sweepstakes cafes offer games of chance, games that attempt to give players a casino-slot feel; senior arcade games, on the other hand, offer low-cost games of skill on machines that are more like adult versions of Chuck E. Cheese's games than anything remotely like a slot machine.
Under FS 849.161, legal senior arcades have to offer at least 50 machines. All 200 of them in Florida do. Which is more than can be said for children's arcades, which usually are tucked away with a dozen machines at best, in a corner at Wal-Mart or a small room off a movie theater lobby or near a waiting area at the airport. You wouldn't want to ban the not-entirely-legal kids' games, right? So, why go after the seniors'?
Gale Fontaine, president of the Florida Arcade Association and a senior arcade owner, can and does argue for the tax revenue these businesses provide -- "We pay 4 percent of our gross to the state, 6 percent in sales and use tax, we feed our customers lunch for free, so we actually have to pay a higher sticker fee to the state and one to the county," she says.
But for Fontaine, herself a senior citizen, there is the overriding, human travesty of throwing senior arcades in with Internet cafes.
"For me, it's all about the seniors, the customers, the people who come in on crutches, in wheelchairs, pushing walkers, the people who otherwise would be isolated and alone."
Fontaine, on her way to Tallahassee from South Florida as I write this, likely will carry with her letters affirming the importance of senior arcades. One is from Sandra Harris, director of the Broward legislative delegation, who has visited senior arcades in Broward County and calls them "happy havens."
"For very small amounts of money, most often just five or 10 dollars, these seniors have lunch ... sometimes dinner ... and always a safe and happy atmosphere to be with others who also may be lonely or in need of recreation."
She has another letter, emailed to her from Mary E. Healey but meant to reach the eyes of the Florida Senate. Healey, from Coral Springs, puts senior arcades in perspective:
She writes that she is the sole caretaker of her 74-year-old mentally and physically challenged sister. "Anna Marie has been completely dependent on family her whole life. She never had the opportunity to go to school, have a job or function independently.
"We go to penny arcades to socialize and to let Anna Marie play the machines just like everybody else. This is the only activity that Anna Marie can do independently. She thrives in the arcade setting and is greeted daily with hugs and kisses from friends we have made over the years. I can't put into words how devastating it would be for Anna Marie if the penny arcades were to close. She would lose her friends, socialization, stimulation and independence.
"I wish that I could have appeared in Tallahassee in person as I feel so strongly. ..."
Fontaine said she will try Tuesday morning to be the voice of Mary and Anna Marie and the hundreds of thousands of Florida seniors who have equally compelling reasons for wanting the Florida Senate to remove senior arcades from the ban on Internet sweepstakes cafes.
Seems to me these places are community. They are neighborhood.
"I think pari-mutuels have the idea that if we shut down, our seniors will go to their casinos," Fontaine said. "I'm telling you right now, that's never, ever going to happen."
Senators, have any of you ever been to a senior arcade? Have you? On Tuesday morning, don't just listen to these people pour their hearts out to you with no idea what they're talking about. I'm asking you to go out of your way to visit a senior arcade and see for yourself. Then cast your vote.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
