- February 8, 2025
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Volusia County deputies shut down an illegal gambling operation near Ormond Beach on July 25.
The sheriff’s office began their investigation of the Hot Spot Internet Café about two months ago after receiving calls and complaints about the business, stating it was illegal because it didn’t have permits and licensing. Volusia County Sheriff’s Office then met with a state attorney to prosecute and investigate the case. After a month of investigation, the sheriff’s office obtained a search warrant and concluded the café was involved in illegal gambling operations.
“If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck and it swims like a duck—it’s a duck,” Volusia County Sheriff Michael Chitwood said. “This is gambling.”
Though illegal gambling is a misdemeanor, deputies found out during the investigation that Hot Spot was also involved in money laundering. During the two-month investigation, the café grossed $600,000 that were not deposited in any Florida bank. Instead, the money was transferred through a furniture business in North Carolina and all of their deposits were under $10,000 to avoid alerting the IRS.
“We’re hoping that the FBI is going to jump on board with us because we don’t have the authority to investigate money that is being transferred out of state,” Chitwood said.
Deputies obtained arrest warrants for the owner of Hot Spot and his son, and are investigating whether or not the landlord of the café knew about the operations.
Sheriff Chitwood said the problem with prosecuting a case like this goes back to the actions of state legislature.
“They created a law that is not enforceable, basically,” Chitwood said. “I think that Tallahassee needs to make a decision here. Are we gonna legalize these things and tax them and regulate them? Or are we going to say ‘This is against the law. We’re gonna prosecute everybody to the full extent of the law.’”
This puts law enforcement in the middle, Chitwood said, with calls from people in the community asking deputies to enforce the law and others questioning the use of the department’s resources on operations that they see as harmless.
“While it’s not the crime of the century, law enforcement is operating in a grey area,” Chitwood said.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office has sent cease and desist papers to other Internet cafés like Hot Spot in the area.
Ormond Beach’s municipal codes and ordinances ban businesses from permitting gambling and having commercial gaming devices. Section 12-146 reads “a violation of this section shall constitute a public nuisance.”
Though Hot Spot was not in an incorporated portion of Ormond Beach, Mayor Bill Partington said he doesn’t like to see businesses like that even on the city’s borders.
“I’m pleased that there’s nothing like that in Ormond Beach and I don’t expect there ever will be,” Partington said.
City Commissioner Dwight Selby said these new kinds of Internet cafés take advantage of the poor because it’s unregulated gambling.
“I think they’re a blight on society,” Selby said. “I’m happy to see the sheriff shut it down, confiscate the equipment and make them prove that’s a legal operation. I think they’ll have a very difficult time doing that.”
Partington said the only way for these internet cafes to legally exist is for them to work with Florida legislature to figure out a way for them to both comply with the law and successfully operate. At this point, they haven’t been able to do that.
“If they were to change their rules or change the game somehow to comply with what the statutes say, then I think they could operate,” Partington said. “It seems like there’s a demand for it, but that’s something that’s gonna have to get worked out in the legislative arena over the next few years before they can legally operate.”
If they don’t comply with the law, he said these cafés can’t be tolerated.
