All across the nation Internet sweepstakes are appearing in store front coffee shops and Internet cafés.  The tricky thing about these Internet sweepstakes setups is that they exist somewhere outside the law in a very thin grey area.  Because the games more or less operate like a sweepstakes, they are not illegal.  But the games are masked as entertainment more commonly seen at online casinos.  This is where the legal grey area comes into play.

It is likely that if online casinos were legalized and regulated in the United States there would be no market for these Internet sweepstakes.  The exist as a way to allow players to feel like they are gambling with online casinos style slot machines, only the slot machines are not exactly random.  Players are pre decided once they buy playing time.  The games a simply for fun and have no real baring on whether a player makes money or not.

However the in San Diego California, law enforcement are encountering Internet cafés that are actually running online casinos.  The situation is nothing at all like the Internet sweepstakes.  These cafes allow players to by time on the Internet.  If the player wins the game being played the café pays the winner.

Law enforcement in both San Diego and Stockton used undercover agents to uncover the illegal gambling operations.  Similar operations were found in Café Hong Hung, ’08 Wireless, Café 2000, Phnom Penh Video, and ’05 Billiards.  With legalized online casinos, people could gamble in the privacy of their own home form their personal computers.