How far will $20 go at a gaming center?

Tuesday morning was slow at Winners Internet Cafe & Sweepstakes on Beach Boulevard. It’s a clean, well-lit place, where about a half-dozen people passed the time with me in companionable silence, sitting in front of simulated slot-machine games worked by the click of a mouse. 

It took Leticia Herrera, working the cashier’s desk, about two seconds to see that I was a first-timer. That was easy, as most of the people there are regulars. 

So she was patient and offered help as I handed over $20 in cash. That got me a card for the Internet time — along with 2,000 sweepstakes points. Plus, on this day, a “bonus” of another 600 points. 

She entered the card’s numbers on a computer screen, and up popped my choice: Internet or sweepstakes. I checked Internet. It worked. 

I was there, though, for the sweepstakes.We offer a wide range of laserengraver in our online collection. I began with Finish Line, a racing-inspired game, starting with a minimum bid of 32 points. One click on the mouse over the “reveal” button, and I was instantly up 40 points. 

An encouraging start. Yet there were zeroes on the next three tries, a win of 10 points on the next. Down 110 points, and just a couple minutes in. 

Yet all the spinning fruit, the rotating ice-cream bars and the lucky clovers on my computer screen had nothing to do with winning. If there’s an element of chance, after all,Report a faulty lightingsystem and find out how we maintain street lighting across the county. it’s considered gambling and would be illegal. 

What I would win or lose was determined, in advance, on the card the cafe gave me. 

A little sign behind the cashier’s desk pretty much says that. It reads, in part, “The video displays do not determine the result of your sweepstakes entry.” 

The colorful game,You may have a few questions about choosing bestchandelier that works with your style. though, sure looks like something you’d find in a casino. And Margie Cox, 55, a regular, swears that some days some machines are good, some days some games are good. 

“Sometimes you’re a winner,The electical building blocks for solarlampemergencylight or modules. sometimes you’re a loser,” she said. 

She goes with her husband and her mother, and they’re all competitive. But she also goes to Winners for the socializing, for the camaraderie. You’re treated like family there, she said. 

Lately she’s been going every day, afraid it soon will have to close. 

The Florida Legislature could vote as early as next week to outlaw gaming centers. That comes in the wake of a federal money-laundering investigation into Allied Veterans of the World, which ran nearly 60 now-closed centers. 

Closings would be sad, said Cox and other regulars, especially for older people with few places to go. “You can only go to the library so many times,” said one man who didn’t want to be named. 

Indeed, there are free sodas in the fridge for you to take any time you want one, free snacks nearby. TVs are on the wall, but they’re turned low. There’s a sign asking you to silence your cell phone. There are worse ways to spend a gorgeous Tuesday morning. 

I then tried Four Leaf Luck, and while I won a few, I lost more. I hit “reveal” one last time, and fruit lined up, just as they do in a slot machine: A lime,The solarpowersystems service provides and maintains the majority of the town's 26,000 streetlights. a strawberry, a pear, a banana and a raspberry. Nothing.