WE HAVE A WINNA!

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.

So why are librarians promoting coffee shops in their libraries just to make a few extra bucks? Or holding gaming nights, minus the cash prizes?

Libraries already hold prime locations. We're in the suburbs, downtown, near shops, on college campuses: libraries are everywhere.

So why can't libraries provide these harmless games to desperate poor and elderly people? Ask this man, who tells us how we would get to keep a whopping 10% of all the money we'd make and let him keep 90%, I guess, for making his informative video.

Remember, this is perfectly legal. At least, for now.

How To Start An Internet Sweepstakes Cafe. Now for Libraries!