Finally back up and running and by the way, where have all the maquinitas gone?

After a full week of battling with AT&T, endless hours on the phone with tech support from god only knows where, last night at 11:30 pm, I finally got my internet back up and running!  I'm not sure what the hell happened to lead to my internet outage for over a week but it took an AT&T tech in person, a new modem and all sorts of troubleshooting to get me back up and running.  Coincidence or just bad luck?  Who knows.

Moving on, during our hiatus, I noticed during my usual stops throughout the cafeterias and convenience stores of Miami Dade county that there seemed to be something missing, specifically maquinitas!

I didn't figure it out till I actually saw a guy with a hand truck removing the machines from one of the cafeterias that I grab breakfast at.  I guess the bill that was passed by the Florida senate last week has the maquinita owners scrambling for cover.  From the Miami Herald article regarding the bill...

Slot machine look-alike games operated by Internet cafes, amusement arcades and Miami’s maquinitas will be officially outlawed under a bill passed Thursday by the Florida Senate.

Gov. Rick Scott will sign the bill into law, according to his spokeswoman, and it will immediately take effect, giving law enforcement the authority to shut down games that fit into the newly-crafted definitions.

“What we’re doing today is doing nothing more than giving law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need when they find illegal gambling to shut it down,’’ said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the sponsor of the Senate bill. The Senate voted 36-4 for HB 155, which had been overwhelmingly approved two weeks ago by the Florida House,108-7

The measure moved swiftly through Tallahassee in reaction to a federal and state investigation into Allied Veterans of the World three weeks ago that led to the arrests of 57 people charged with illegal gambling, money laundering and racketeering. The investigation prompted Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who had once worked for Allied Veterans, to resign.

Police allege that that the sham veterans’ group made $300 million in profits by operating the illegal machines, but donated only about $6 million to charity. The investigation is continuing and law enforcement say they are targeting other operators.

The change effectively allows only pari-mutuels and the tribal casinos to operate casino-style games and bans any “casino-style game in which the outcome is determined by factors unpredicted by the players or games in which the player may not control the outcome of the game through skill.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/04/3324161/legislature-sends-internet-cafe.html#storylink=cpy

Fucking brilliant!  While the 70/30 split the machine owners offered the business owners was certainly lucrative, it's about time these things were outlawed.  I'm sure the economic impact for the business owners will be devastating as several of them, including my own tenants, have told me that they operate their business strictly as a front in order to house these machines.  More importantly thought, the outlawing of these machines cuts off a major income source for the underground business owners who reaped the benefits of the millions upon millions of tax free cash dollars that these machines generated.  To give you an idea of just how much money we're talking about, a former tenant of mine who had seven of these machines claimed that he was netting $2,000 per week from his machines, which would mean the machine owners were picking up around $870 per week or about a $125 per week per machine.  Taking that number into account then figuring the thousands of machines that were scattered all about Miami Dade County alone gives you an idea of the kind of money the machine owners were raking in.

Thank god that these machines and the political influence their operators and owners ill gotten gains created is gone once and for all.  The job former City of Miami Police Chief, Miguel Exposito, and his command staff started but wasn't allowed to finish has finally been completed, unfortunately it cost them their careers...

And to the doddering old fool that was protecting these illegal gaming machines and their owners?  FUCK YOU!