Miami officials happily smashed a handful of illegal video gambling machines recently confiscated as part of a long-running law enforcement campaign to
push the business out of the city.

BY LUISA YANEZ

Wearing goggles and swinging sledgehammers, several Miami officials on Wednesday destroyed some of nearly 900 illegal video gambling machines that
were recently confiscated from local cafeterias.

The machines are the booty of Miami police's ''quality of life'' task force, created by Miami Mayor Manny Diaz to battle everything from the video bandits
to backyard chickens to abandoned cars on lawns.

''We've put together a cohesive effort to go into neighborhoods and clean them up,'' said Diaz, who took vigorous swings at one machine following a press
conference in a parking lot of the city's General Services Administration building.

Getting rid of the $1 gambling machines, or maquinitas, is a major part of an ongoing plan to clean up neighborhoods throughout Miami, the mayor said.

The storefront cafeterias with gambling machines have flourished in Little Havana, Wynwood, Allapattah and the Model City area, where they have attracted
illegal activity, including drug dealing and prostitution, said city officials.

A LOSING GAME

Cafeteria owners would typically bring the machines into their businesses by falsely telling city officials on their permit applications that they were
being used for entertainment purposes only.

Commissioner Angel Gonzalez, who led the task force, said the machines would pay customers only 10 percent of what they collected in revenue. Winners would
receive credits, which they cashed in with merchants, who netted as much as $4,000 a week. ''These machines are a haven of bad news,'' said Commissioner
Joe Sánchez, whose District 3 encompasses much of Little Havana.

Sánchez blamed the gambling cafeterias for fueling incidents of domestic violence in many poor Miami neighborhoods.

'Hard-working men will stop off for a beer at one of these places and spend their paycheck on the video machines. When they go home and their wives ask:
`Where's the rent money?' '' Sánchez said.

Maj. Miguel Exposito, who supervised the raids, said some of the businesses stripped of machines have since closed down; others have moved and reopened
outside the city limits.

Laborers weren't the only ones lured into these establishments by the video bandits, Exposito said.

''There were senior citizens who were addicted to these machines and were spending their Social Security checks playing them,'' he said.

LAWSUIT

The city's crackdown on cafeterias, which began in 2003, has angered cafeteria owners.

Last November, they banded together and filed suit against the city, claiming Miami officials are harassing them. The group of about 40 owners is being
represented by former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. ''This is a clear case of selective enforcement of a law that is clearly being preempted by state
law. . . . People are being arrested for carrying on a business that is lawful and protected by state law,'' Suarez said.

Herald staff writer Michael Vasquez contributed to this report.