Baker County Commission chairman Alex Robinson directed the board’s legal counsel last week to draft an ordinance that would, in effect, prohibit so-called Internet cafes that feature electronic sweepstakes games resembling those found in casinos.

“We’re going to scrutinize Internet cafes,” he said during the commission’s July 6 workshop prior to its regular meeting. “They better be legit or they won’t get in here.”

About 18 months ago, county planning staff began receiving inquires about plans to open what planning department secretary Patricia Bass called “electronic game rooms.”

“I started checking the LDRs [land development regulations] and we had nothing on computer game rooms,” she said.

The establishments do not accept cash or serve alcohol like most gambling venues, but they can be just as problematic, Ms. Bass said.

Internet cafes like those on Blanding Boulevard and other Jacksonville locations take electronic credit or debit card payments from customers, who receive a Internet time card with pre-programmed sweepstakes results.

Patrons insert the cards into computer terminals that reveal the sweepstakes results on the screen that graphically resemble slot machines or other casino games.

But the computers also allow users to browse the Internet, check e-mail and the like, said Brian Kongsvik, director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling in Orlando, which has operated a support hotline for gambling addicts for 20 years.

“It’s a grey area of gambling, but it’s gambling nonetheless,” he told the commission.

Mr. Kongsvik said it’s the convenience of Internet sweepstakes cafes that make them so dangerous.

“It attracts people who probably wouldn’t travel to a casino or other gambling location,” he said, adding that typical patrons are low-income, elderly — usually women and sometimes disabled.

Last year the compulsive gambling hotline received about 60 calls from people who had frequented the cafes. Mr. Kongsvik said 54 percent of the callers were women, 35 percent black, 25 percent unemployed, and 75 percent described themselves as in financial trouble.`

“They’re spending hundreds of dollars a day ... We know this,” he said.

County attorney Terry Brown also represents the Bradford County Commission, which recently approved an ordinance prohibiting new Internet sweepstakes cafes. The new law, he said, grandfathered in two existing cafes.

Mr. Brown advised the board that if it wanted to prohibit the cafes, an ordinance should be drafted. “Otherwise you’re libel to have one and I’m not sure you could shut it down,” he said.