SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s Supreme Court is set to decide Thursday whether computerized “sweepstakes” games found at Internet cafes are illegal slot machines.
Authorities have been trying to crack down on businesses that offer the games, equating them to gambling dens that contribute to vices such as drugs and prostitution. But the business owners say the sweepstakes, unlike slot machines, have predetermined outcomes that make them similar to lottery vending machines dispensing Scratchers tickets.
The case the court is considering involves several Internet cafes in Kern County that local prosecutors sought to stop from offering sweepstakes games.
A lower court sided with prosecutors, saying the games functioned just like slot machines. Though the outcomes were predetermined and not randomly generated by the computer, customers had no idea whether they would win and no influence over the process, making it a game of chance just like a slot machine, the Fresno-based 5th District Court of Appeal ruled last year.
Internet sweepstakes cafes are places people can go to access the Internet or make low-cost long-distance telephone calls. The businesses, however, now feature dozens of computers where customers play video games that often simulate casino slot machines.
The games, or sweepstakes, are for cash prizes. Customers get points, or credits, for purchases they make at the store that they can use to play the sweepstakes.
The American Gaming Association estimates that Internet sweepstakes cafes take in $10 billion a year nationwide.
The businesses’ owners say the games are a way to promote their other products and a fun way for customers to reveal a sweepstakes result.
They warn that the court of appeal’s decision would make sweepstakes operated by McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and other retailers, and the state’s lottery vending machines for Scratchers tickets illegal.
Kern County prosecutors disagree and say the businesses they went after were mini casinos that were evading the state’s gambling laws.
