Monday, December 5, 2011   So the solution for saving libraries
is obvious: open internet cafes.  Sure, your library offers free
internet, but do you also offer PAID internet?  Here is the
difference between the boring free library and the cool internet
sweepstakes cafe: A typical scenario is for a business to
advertise itself as essentially a sweepstakes parlor. Customers
buy phone cards and get with each purchase a separate, magnetic
card with credit for a chance for every minute of phone time
purchased.  Players sit at a terminal in the cafe and log onto a
sweepstakes account created for them that keeps track of their
winnings. Some parlors have 50 or more terminals. "'You can play
all day long for 40 bucks.'"  $40. A day. Every day. Times 50
terminals... that's... something. Oh, I just found my
calculator; that's $2,000. Oh, I could have done that in my
head. Minus holidays, that's $700,000 a year. Per location. And
there are over 1,000 of these sites in Florida alone. And they
seem to be perfectly legal.