Internet (rey de) cafe

Internet cafes are all the rage in the Cleveland area, but just as "arcade" used to be a euphemism for "peep show," these cafes have a dirty little secret: they're gambling bordellos that use desktop computers and an Internet connection to allow patrons to play slots-like games legally.

The loophole is that the user enteres a sweepstakes by purchasing minutes on a calling card that you use to access the Internet while in the cafe. You receive a token per penny to enter into various sweepstakes that cost between $.25 and $4 to play. The results of the sweepstakes are then illustrated using the familiar layout of various types of slots games. This is a similar model to Instant Racing, which uses historical races to determine results.

These Internet Cafes are not like the cool, hip spots of the late 90s, though, with some beatnik slamming poetry in the corner while you cruise the Prodigy boards for chicks. The current carnation I went to in Broadview Heights was in what I'm guessing was either an old accountant's office or an old State Farm agent's office. The upstairs tenant of the building was a driving school.

Anyway, you walk in and there's a small reception area with a front desk, but instead of "waiting room chairs" there are four computers set up ready for your action. The next room behind the reception area is the "cafe" portion of the business with a cooler filled with soft drinks, a coffee station, and some vending machine-type snacks like cookies and potato chips. There was a small room about the size of a bigger walk-in closet to the left that I reffered to as the high rollers' room. There was then another ten workstations setup in the back room. This room also included an ATM and a kiosk to reload your "phone card."

It was quite a process to actually play. You had to load up your phone card with cash then log on, read some boilerplate, and click some very specific things. This probably allows them to say you're buying "internet time" and thus eligible for the sweepstakes that go on every few seconds at your computer only.

The one thing that struck me is when the proprietor said, "Help yourself to the cooler of soft drinks or the coffee station, and we have snacks too."

Imagine being at a racetrack and someone comes up to you after betting the early double and inviting you to a beverage. We've all seen the rewards programs where $500 in handle gets you a hot dog. It'd be better to have no rewards program at all at those price points.

Anyway, if a fly-by-night Internet Cafe in an old accountant's office downstairs from a driving school can offer that kind of customer service then why can't racing?