TMCnet News
Police raid 2 Roanoke Internet cafes in gambling investigation: One owner said that he was operating a sweepstakes rather than a gambling operation.Jun 13, 2009 (The Roanoke Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Roanoke police raided and seized equipment on Thursday night from two Roanoke Internet cafes as part of an online gambling investigation. Police are investigating the Williamson Road Internet Cafe in the 5300 block of Williamson Road and Internet Sweepstakes Connection in the 3400 block of Orange Avenue. No one has been charged. According to a search warrant filed in Roanoke Circuit Court, an officer went into the businesses four or five times within the past six weeks and paid for access to a computer where the officer could play online games such as Keno and Lucky Diamonds. The officer won $54 at one business throughout five visits, according to the search warrant. The investigation began after Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell received tips about the businesses and referred them to police, he said. Caldwell will seek indictments against the business owners when the grand jury meets in July, he said. It is illegal in Virginia to operate a gambling enterprise, but it is not illegal to gamble at home. Both businesses have licenses with the city, according to the commissioner of revenue's office. Ronnie Bennett, who owns the Williamson Road cafe, which is now closed, said Friday that he operated a sweepstakes, which is different from gambling. The sweepstakes is legal because it is free, he said. Customers pay for time on the Internet, and the sweepstakes is an added bonus, he said. He said it is no different than buying a hamburger at McDonald's and pulling a tab off the wrapper to play the restaurant's Monopoly game. "We're selling [Internet] time instead of hamburgers," he said. Bennett lives in Pilot Mountain, N.C., and said that sweepstakes in his state have also come under scrutiny from officials. But those businesses have been found to be legal, he said. "We knew we'd have to deal with this sooner or later," he said. Three businesses in Danville were closed down earlier this year on similar allegations, according to a news story in the Danville Register & Bee. Those cases have not yet been resolved in court, according to online court records. News researcher Belinda Harris contributed to this report. To see more of The Roanoke Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.roanoke.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Roanoke Times, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |