Vermilion imposes 6-month moratorium on new sweepstakes, gaming cafes

Vermilion City Council this week enacted a six-month moratorium on new sweepstakes cafes and gaming establishments. Vermilion Mayor Jim Forthofer had encouraged City Council to pass a moratorium, he said, and it did so on Monday. "It's just a six-month moratorium, to re-examine what the city's position is on sweepstakes cafes and make sure our ordinances are in compliance with state law," Forthofer said. Forthofer said he and police Chief Christopher Hartung both had concerns about the businesses currently in Vermilion and others that have expressed interest in moving into the city. Conversations with Ohio Gaming Commission personnel also "cause me concern regarding our city's current legislation governing these establishments," Forthofer said in his mayor's report to council Monday. In an email, Hartung said that sweepstakes cafes and gaming establishments "currently operate in the city limits and we had some pending applications for new openings." The businesses sometimes operate in a legal gray area and in the past have been raided or cited by police and state officials. Hartung said the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office and the Ohio Gaming Commission recently served a search warrant on the 777 Player's Paradise on Liberty Avenue in Vermilion, and discussions were had at the time about best practices for regulating such businesses. He said he sent the city's existing rules on such businesses to state officials, who made recommendations for changes in Vermilion's current ordinances. "For example, if you operate a sweepstakes business, you would be required to be registered with the Ohio attorney general's office," Hartung wrote. Skill-based devices would have their own registration requirements and no devices without oversight would be allowed. Owners would have to declare what they were and prove they were registered with the state before opening, Hartung said. "Before more entities open in the city, we felt it necessary to request a moratorium of any new business opening until we had an opportunity to research and tweak our current rules to ensure we protect the interest of the city as well as the business owners," he wrote. "Partially it's a function of, do we know for certain what the laws are? There are so many different variances in these things, are we where we should be?" Forthofer said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.