A bill that would have outlawed cybercafes, or Internet sweepstakes businesses, from operating in Colorado died Wednesday in the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee.
Opponents of cybercafes, which sell Internet access to customers and offer computer sweepstakes games for people to play, equated the businesses to illegal gambling operations that target the elderly and poor.
The last week.
But committee chair Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, said a number of cybercafe operators had told her and her colleagues that they had followed all the legal steps necessary to set up their shops and that they were not gambling houses.
Tochtrop said the bill would have needed further refinement to make it to the full Senate floor. Wednesday is the last day of the 2014 legislative session.
“You don’t just walk in, in my opinion, and shut a business down,” she said.
John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abuvthefold
