Colorado sweepstakes cafes are unlawful. At the very least, that’s the opinion through the state’s Attorney General’s office, which has issued a legal opinion saying that ‘cybercafés,’ better understood as sweepstakes cafes in a number of other states, constitute an application of illegal gambling.

According to the opinion, the cafes are no sweepstakes operations, but are gambling operations and would require become approved by voters through an amendment to the state’s constitution in order to be legal.

The AG official dictum goes on to say that the sweepstakes cafes have all of the current weather that are necessary to classify an activity as gambling.

‘Because all three elements: consideration, possibility, and prize are current, under Colorado legislation, the activity occurring at sweepstakes cafes in Colorado constitutes gambling that is illegal’ the opinion reported.

Roughly 40 Cafes Operating in State

Based on industry officials, there are about 40 venues that are such operating in Colorado. Former Pueblo County Sheriff Dan Corsentino, who now works as a consultant for Cyber GT techniques (which has seven of the organizations), says they cannot constitute gambling. He says that the games involve some known level of skill, and that the cafes simply give customers another technique to play games and try to win prizes, something widely available not in the cafes since well.

That’s not an opinion that lots of states have shared so far. In the last few years, operators of sweepstakes cafes have actually fought and lost legal battles in states Florida that is including, and Mississippi. But Corsentino states he hopes that officials Colorado will discover a better method to deal with the industry than those states.

‘We think legislation is a lot better than express prohibition,’ stated Corsentino. ‘we’m hoping there is some middle ground.’

To that end, he says the cafes might be willing to bend their business models to make certain they comply with state laws and regulations. They might add more items for sale so they stay away from the three areas of the state that allow for casino gambling that they better resemble retail stores, and make sure.

Legislators Say AG’s Verdict is obvious

But legislators say that this is unlikely to satisfy them.

‘It seems to me personally that the lawyer general had been pretty company that these operations are illegal,’ said State Representative Polly Lawrence (R-Roxborough Park).

Lawrence was one of the sponsors of legislation early in the day this year that was designed to kill the sweepstakes cafes. According to Lawrence, the cafes make most of their money from the poor and the elderly, and so they lack the controls and regulation that their state’s gambling enterprises are subjected to.

The ruling from the Attorney General’s office doesn’t indicate the cybercafés are getting away any time in the future. According to office spokesperson Carolyn Tyler, regional law enforcement officials will need certainly to decide what should occur to the firms in their jurisdictions. As of yet, there has been no immediate moves to raid or shut down any cafes.

Some towns and cities have actually already considered the presssing issue, however. For instance, the Lakewood City Council passed an one-year moratorium on licensing sweepstakes cafes earlier in 2014 so that you can see the way the state would regulate them in the meantime.

The sweepstakes cafes, which have popped up in several states and almost always provoked legal challenges, use a variety of solutions to attempt to get around gambling laws and regulations. Typically, users must purchase an item such as for example phone cards or Internet time in change for sweepstakes entries, that may lead to cash prizes. However, officials say that customers are only at these venues for the gambling aspect, and few if any actually want to use anything they purchase in the stores.