Lawmakers in the Buckeye State have just banned Internet cafes, believing them to be nothing more than essentially unregulated corner casinos. As the Daily Dot notes, this move follows a ban that Florida passed in April, and several California municipalities are also getting on board with bans.

With widespread home Internet access, Ohio's "cafes" are apparently no longer places folks go simply to get online for a few minutes—the focus is apparently on electronic-slot type games, according to The Plain Dealer. "Internet cafes operate by selling Internet time or phone cards and in return offer free chances to win cash on computer games that often resemble slot machines," the newspaper explains. The cafes in Ohio mostly draw an older crowd, according to cafe owners.

The cafes tried to get around casino regulations by saying they offered legal online "sweepstakes." Ohio courts have split on the issue of whether the cafes are offering legal sweepstakes games, or illegal gambling. There are only four legal casinos in Ohio, a state which authorized Las Vegas-style gambling just one year ago.

Cafe owners pled their case vigorously in the legislature, arguing that 6,000 jobs would be lost to the ban and that they should be regulated, not banned. It didn't help; the state Senate voted 27-6 to pass a ban. Ohio Governor John Kasich has said he'll sign the bill when it gets to his desk.

"I would hope that small businesses in Ohio would be protected," said a lawyer representing several Ohio cafes. "Cafe owners have been maligned unfairly."

But Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine had no love for these cafes, and their testimony ultimately proved more persuasive.

"These 500 illegal, unregulated, corner gambling parlors have been making tens of millions of dollars by swindling their poor, elderly, and vulnerable slot players," McGinty said in a statement. DeWine and Ohio's public safety director said they "refused to be intimidated by big money or politics. They and their investigators were determined to end the exploitation."