Online Sweepstakes Parlors - Are they Bad News?

There are only a few places across the entire country that state law or federal law recognize as places where gambling is legal. But then, in any city, in any neighborhood of the country, who could miss the way there are always places that anyone with a little spare time on their hands could head to for a little time spent trying one's luck? At any Internet caf or business center offering Internet access at any strip mall these days, you're likely to find at least a couple of people who are there for no regular business reason. There is no job search going on, there are no faxes being sent. Visitors in these places who sit by an Internet terminal endlessly pulling the virtual cranks on an online slot machine are here to gamble. A player who pays for online gambling time can expect the owner of the business center or the Internet caf to pay out should he win. Are these business centers really mini casinos then? It's not as if they are just hosting the Internet-enabled computers; they are actually accepting money (players will buy phone cards with sweepstakes entries encrypted on them) for the use of the machines, and then pay out winnings too.

None of these places is authorized to enable gambling; the state of Florida that is home to so many retirees is particularly well-endowed with these online sweepstakes parlors; and gambling isn't even legal in Florida. As far as the law is concerned, this is kind of a gray area; the businesses that offer this service claim that they are not casinos, while the police strongly suspect that they are. Gambling is a activity that in particular seems to draw criminals and fraudsters in in large numbers; consumer advocates and law enforcement authorities are obviously worried about whether these poor retirees trying to make a little spare cash are actually getting taken for what little they have.

The reason that these places are allowed to offer gambling in states that forbid it, is that they try to get by on a little ambiguity the law allows. While the law prohibits online gambling for being a game of chance, these places only advertise online sweepstakes - where technically, everything is supposed be predetermined and there is supposed to be no uncertainty. To look at the gaming experience to be had on those computers though, you would be hard put to tell it apart from gambling.

Sweepstakes are supposed to be not a central business in themselves; they are supposed to be an attraction to have you come in and buy the main product a business deals in. These online sweepstakes parlors on the other hand have nothing to sell but the sweepstakes themselves. In places as far apart as California, Utah and Florida, local authorities, with no real guidance on what to do in these matters, are taking things up on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes the win, sometimes they don't. But one thing they are sure of - these sweepstakes are all about ripping poor people off.

People buy those phone cards for their chance to play; the police don't know what to make of a phone card. It's difficult to prove that to an online sweepstakes business, the phone card is like a casino chip. And on average, a poor person loses up to $10,000 every three months. Once gambling enters a community, it really gets its hooks into it.