Internet Cafe? (rental, crimes, loan)

[kjbrill]

I need some help in determining just what this subject is. In the area where I live, just about all of the local surrounding jurisdictions have passed a moratorium on granting a business license to such an establishment. They are trying to figure out zoning and a whole lot of other rules.

Best I can tell, such an establishment is a front for internet gambling. They rent a store-front, have one employee running it, and sell pre-paid cards to access their computerized gambling sites. Sounds like another method to circumvent state jurisdiction over gambling.

Do any of you have an opinion?

[progmac]

an internet cafe, to me, is nothing more than a store with a group of internet-equipped computers rentable by the hour or half-hour. coffee or bottles of soda may be available for purchase, although that is secondary. however, with the proliferation of low-cost computers and high-speed internet at the home, they are almost unheard of in the US, although they remain popular and ubiquitous abroad.

to mason's issue, if illegal gambling is occurring, certainly the existing zoning laws regarding gambling houses could apply.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by progmac

an internet cafe, to me, is nothing more than a store with a group of internet-equipped computers rentable by the hour or half-hour. coffee or bottles of soda may be available for purchase, although that is secondary. however, with the proliferation of low-cost computers and high-speed internet at the home, they are almost unheard of in the US, although they remain popular and ubiquitous abroad.

to mason's issue, if illegal gambling is occurring, certainly the existing zoning laws regarding gambling houses could apply.

As I understand it, they are proliferating in Northern Ohio and other states. The name sounds like it is an innocent access to the internet using rental computers. But as you say, low-cost computers and other devices are making this aspect obsolete. Again, from what I am reading now they are just a front for computerized gambling. The various jurisdictions are scrambling to determine what they can do via zoning, etc. regulations to deny their opening at all.

[Wilson513]

I thought it was all about porn. People go to the cafe and log on anonymously and uploand and download all of their illegal dirty pictures and then disappear so if it is the police they are communicating with they won;t leave a finger print in the form of an IP address assigned to them.

[Love-Cinci]

Originally Posted by wilson1010

I thought it was all about porn. People go to the cafe and log on anonymously and uploand and download all of their illegal dirty pictures and then disappear so if it is the police they are communicating with they won;t leave a finger print in the form of an IP address assigned to them.

Why not just use a VPN?

Anyway, guess the people doing these sort of crimes are that dumb anyways to show their ugly faces in public to be identified by a camera.