Internet cafes across Florida died Wednesday, signed out of existence with the signature of Gov. Rick Scott.
The governor signed legislation banning all electronic games that simulate slot machines or other casino-type games. Ittook effect immediately, leaving police and prosecutors with the authority to shut down and make arrests at any cafes that continue to operate.
Some arcade operators are considering retooling their machines to meet the new definitions for legal amusement games.
In the meantime, however, it's estimated that about 1,000 Internet cafes employing 14,000 people are out of business as a result of the law.
The law creates a dilemma for Scott, whose main mission since he came to office has been to create jobs in Florida.
Here is reaction, in word and video, of some of the state legislators:
Gov. Rick Scott, R-Florida
I think the House and Senate did the right thing to crack down on illegal gaming, especially in light of the Allied Veterans multistate criminal conspiracy. They did the right thing and now they can get back to working on my two priorities for the session: the $2,500 pay raise across-the-board for our classroom teachers and eliminating the sales tax on manufacturing equipment so we have more jobs.
This bill is to crack down on illegal gaming and thats what the House and Senate did. They cracked down on illegal gaming. They did the right thing.
Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine
But while I care about creating jobs, just like the governor does, none of us want to create jobs around illegal activity and I think everybody would agree with that. So hopefully some of these folks will retool their existing machines and put them in a posture where theyre actually legal machines and I think they can do that.
Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando
This was a scandal of scandals. We had our lieutenant governor fall from grace on this one. I cant describe to you how surreal it was up here when I saw that and it just gave us all this feeling that we dont have a handle on these Internet cafes. And while I dont have a personal offense against them because I believe people [should] be able to do what they want to do if theyre not hurting others,in this case, they were hurting others.
Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island
Internet cafes really were kind of Lone Rangers out there. They were not paying taxes, they were not regulated and so Im quite confident in the direction that the state is taking.
Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa
It was a fast reaction to an incident and maybe we didnt give enough time and thought to it. At least we couldve talked about it some more through the end of session, because the bill -- whatever the majority wanted -- could have passed later. It didnt have to, but we rushed to judgment and in the consequences of that, jobs will probably be lost, seniors might not have access to arcades and we didnt adequately explore whether we could come up with a law that would require them to make these machines operate legally.
Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey
We always heard about the mom-and-pop Internet cafes where senior citizens went in and used them with pretty much just their pennies, nickels and dimes. Now were finding out its a lot bigger than that. Its not just the pennies, nickels and dimes. Its hundreds of millions of dollars that are being taken from patrons in this state, from consumers in this state, with no regulation, absolutely zero regulation.
Rep. Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville
We have a number of Floridians who are out there that will be impacted by this, that will lose jobs. We have a number of businesses that may have challenges as it relates to them being able to move forward. Im hopeful as with every piece of legislation that we pass, we have glitch bills and as those issues are raised, that we will be able to address those issues and make sure that were doing whats in the best interest of Florida.
The legislation to ban Internet cafes raced through the Legislature after a sweeping, three-year state and federal gambling investigation resulted in scores of arrests and the shutdown of about 50 Internet cafes operated by the group Allied Veterans of the World.
Former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll was forced to resign because she had worked for the group several years ago and said she did not want to become a distraction.
Dave Heller is a Tallahassee freelance reporter/videographer.
