Sorry, But You Are Wrong
I see all of these people making disparaging remarks about the intelligence of the people in Florida and the state legislature over the 2013 changes that were made by House Bill 155 to § 849.16 [PDF link], for Chapter 849 (Gambling) of Title XLVI (Crimes) of the Florida statutes.
First off, this wasn’t a mistake, the changes accomplish exactly what they wanted to accomplish, and that includes seizing your computer or smartphone if you use them for ‘gambling’ as defined by the state of Florida. They are addressing what they perceive to be a serious loophole in the previous version of the law that came to light when the Feds raided several ‘Internet cafes’ in Florida as part of an interstate gambling investigation. That investigation led to the resignation of the state’s Lieutenant Governor, as she had worked as a public relations spokesperson for one of the groups involved in the Federal sweep.
There are plenty of legal ways to gamble in the state of Florida, and each of those ways has an industry lobbyist in Tallahassee to prevent any intrusions on their ‘turf’.
You should understand that the people who brought the lawsuit about these changes are part of the same group that created the problem – owners of ‘internet cafes’.
Update: I saw an example of one of the so-called problems with the law was someone using a smartphone to read a code for a manufacturer’s contest. That isn’t ‘gambling’ under Florida law, as explained in § 849.094 (Game promotion in connection with sale of consumer products or services.), so it isn’t applicable. As I seem to remember that this claim was made by the attorney for the plaintiff, maybe he should read the entire law – just a suggestion.
Note on the PDF file: The relevant changes are on the bottom of page 4 and top of page 5. The strike-throughs indicate text deleted from the previous law, and underlining indicate text that was inserted.
4 comments
It does appear to outlaw public libraries from having public access computers however, since said computers can be used to access online gaming services. Libraries presumably have filters to prevent accessing the popular ones, but since they can’t filter out *all* gaming sites, and since it is almost certain that one or more of their patrons will find one and play a game, that makes them illegal gaming establishments under that law, if I’m reading it right :twisted:.
– Badtux the Not-lawyer Penguin
Actually, the government of Florida is a ‘legal’ gaming establishment, and the Florida Lottery was one of the groups that have been lobbying for the changes.
The libraries are fine, but the user will probably get slapped with a city/county ordinance violation, even if the state doesn’t go after them for illegal gambling.
Most libraries use local filtering to go to ‘portals’ where even more filtering takes place. The last time I checked, I couldn’t update the blog from any of the local libraries, and there are fewer available now because of austerity budgets at all levels.
But if I’m reading it right, Bryan, it states that the *owner* of the device is responsible for the use of the device to gamble even if he had nothing to do with the site. That is why the “internet cafes” all closed — they could not guarantee that people would not use the computers to gamble. Yes, I know the libraries are filtered to bajeezus and back, but if you think that determined people won’t figure a way through the filtering, you’re living in a magic world of pink unicorns and cotton candy trees, not *this* world. And the libraries do own the computers. So yes, this *would* make libraries illegal gambling casinos under this law, if someone in the library figures out how to get to a gambling site and play despite the filters. Maybe. It depends on whether they charge to rent time on the computers or not…
All in all, an overly broad, poorly written law. In attempting to plug loopholes, they managed to use a Caterpillar D9 where a gardening spade would have been more appropriate. So it goes.
Sovereign immunity kicks in, Badtux, so public libraries are in no danger.
Florida’s biggest problem is that the legislature is a part-time job that only lasts 60 days per year, and it was really only designed to pass a budget. That’s why we keep getting buried in initiatives on our ballot.
It is fairly difficult to crack a system while working in a public space in view of the check out desk, and time limited. If you had that kind of skill you would do it to a machine belonging to friend, or on hacked Wifi.
It’s not like there are any local state’s attorneys who will actually do anything with the law outside of South Florida, and then only when one of the gambling stakeholders complains.