businessguy000
Junior Member
Let me start off i'm not one of those Americans out to sue to make money.
I was looking to open up an internet cafe here in northeast Ohio. I went to the county zoning board and gave them the floor plan and such and they said everything was good to go, that i wouldn't have any trouble opening once i have had all of my fire inspection permits and everything which i have passed. As a former business owner, i never knew you had to go in front of a township zoning board also. So i put in money into the building, and opened up. 2 days later, i was shut down. There is an internet cafe across the street from us, and the owner of that is the one who reported us we found out (Close friend is a cop who came with the zoning inspector and told us). The business owner across the street has a step dad who is one of the ones appointed by the zoning board and we feel he was paid under the table to vote against us so we didn't take his son in law's customers. We stood before the zoning board, and got a vote 0-5 all voting no. There were 3 other internet cafe's who got a vote yes that day and were able to open up. So we waited a month, took in a guy who specialized in building the internet sweepstake machines, and he answered all the questions correctly because the first case the problem was the machines they said. At the end of the night, they concluded that ours is considered gambling when we do have internet hooked up to every machine. So we got a 0-5 vote saying no again. Now we might be stuck with a lease until a year is up depending on the landlord, and we invested all this money into it when we didn't know we were supposed to stand before a board. I can take the loss because that was my own fault. It will hurt me financially. However i feel they should be sued for discrimination since all of the others were able to open except us when we are in fact legal. If i got a transcript of everything said, and get a partison to examine the machine, would i stand a chance?
The ONLY difference between our machines and the others are that you have to go up to their desk, hand them the money personally so they can put points on a blank card they give you, and you put that blank card in the machine. On our machines, you put the money directly into the machine, a receipt comes out for your internet time, and from there you can choose between browsing the internet or playing the sweepstakes free give away.
To me, ours would be more legal because you get a receipt the second you put money in the machine stating how much internet time you get compared to where you just hand them money and they give you a card to put the money (on the card) into the machine. Theirs doesn't state what the money is exactly being spent on. And these machines of ours are being used up at all the internet cafe's in akron so they are legal or else those businesses would not be able to operate.
Another thing is that they didn't ask anyone (5 other business cases) but us how many customers and how much money we would be making. That isn't any of their concern so i do not know why they would ask only us that.
I was looking to open up an internet cafe here in northeast Ohio. I went to the county zoning board and gave them the floor plan and such and they said everything was good to go, that i wouldn't have any trouble opening once i have had all of my fire inspection permits and everything which i have passed. As a former business owner, i never knew you had to go in front of a township zoning board also. So i put in money into the building, and opened up. 2 days later, i was shut down. There is an internet cafe across the street from us, and the owner of that is the one who reported us we found out (Close friend is a cop who came with the zoning inspector and told us). The business owner across the street has a step dad who is one of the ones appointed by the zoning board and we feel he was paid under the table to vote against us so we didn't take his son in law's customers. We stood before the zoning board, and got a vote 0-5 all voting no. There were 3 other internet cafe's who got a vote yes that day and were able to open up. So we waited a month, took in a guy who specialized in building the internet sweepstake machines, and he answered all the questions correctly because the first case the problem was the machines they said. At the end of the night, they concluded that ours is considered gambling when we do have internet hooked up to every machine. So we got a 0-5 vote saying no again. Now we might be stuck with a lease until a year is up depending on the landlord, and we invested all this money into it when we didn't know we were supposed to stand before a board. I can take the loss because that was my own fault. It will hurt me financially. However i feel they should be sued for discrimination since all of the others were able to open except us when we are in fact legal. If i got a transcript of everything said, and get a partison to examine the machine, would i stand a chance?
The ONLY difference between our machines and the others are that you have to go up to their desk, hand them the money personally so they can put points on a blank card they give you, and you put that blank card in the machine. On our machines, you put the money directly into the machine, a receipt comes out for your internet time, and from there you can choose between browsing the internet or playing the sweepstakes free give away.
To me, ours would be more legal because you get a receipt the second you put money in the machine stating how much internet time you get compared to where you just hand them money and they give you a card to put the money (on the card) into the machine. Theirs doesn't state what the money is exactly being spent on. And these machines of ours are being used up at all the internet cafe's in akron so they are legal or else those businesses would not be able to operate.
Another thing is that they didn't ask anyone (5 other business cases) but us how many customers and how much money we would be making. That isn't any of their concern so i do not know why they would ask only us that.
Last edited: