Planning Board takes extra steps to prevent sweepstakes cafes
Date: 4/18/2011
April 18, 2011By Chris Maza
Reminder Assistant Editor
EAST LONGMEADOW — While the Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley's office has already declared sweepstakes cafés illegal, the Planning Board is hoping the town agrees to take extra steps to prevent such establishments from setting up shop in town.
An article is expected to appear on the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting on May 16 that would add language to the East Longmeadow Zoning Bylaw to define the term "gaming establishment."
"While the Attorney General has determined these cyber cafés are illegal, we wanted to further protect the town by establishing that definition," Planning Board Director Robyn Macdonald said.
The amendment would read, "An establishment whose primary business is conducting sweepstakes, lotteries, or other games with cash prizes other than games conducted by the state lottery commission are not allowed in any district."
Earlier this year,
Reminder Publications reported that the group of Gerald and Jennifer Burritt, along with Sharon Keough, went before the Planning Board to request a waiver of site plan for a proposed Internet sweepstakes café on Main Street, but later pulled their application.
The Planning Board put off making a decision to discuss the legality of the proposed business with local law enforcement, the Hampden County District Attorney's office and the Attorney General's office.
The group later retracted their request before the town made its decision, Macdonald said.
On April 7, Coakley's office released a statement announcing that emergency regulations were filed at the Secretary of State's office with the purpose of banning cyber cafés and phone card video gaming terminals throughout the state.
"The goal of these regulations is to protect consumers. These cyber cafés are really cyber scams with no posted odds, minimum odds, or guarantee of payouts for patrons. With these regulations, we are making clear that such gambling operations at 'cyber cafés' and 'phone card video gaming terminals' are illegal," Coakley said in the release.
Macdonald added that in addition to preying on specific populations that could be vulnerable to scams, Internet gaming cafés bring the potential of added crime.
"If they're not shut down, odds are that soon they will start being robbed," Macdonald said. "These cafés are closed off, have very little security and are dealing with large amounts of cash."
