NASHUA – A shuttered Internet gaming cafe was operating in a jurisdictional black hole before a police gambling investigation forced its closure last week.

State and local officials said the games of chance played at BIGS Cafe on Daniel Webster Highway were not sanctioned by any state agency.

Nashua police Capt. George McCarthy confirmed that police are conducting an investigation into suspected illegal gambling involving BIGS Cafe. He said police did take some property from the 295 Daniel Webster shop, but declined to say what. No arrests have been made.

“We’re still moving forward with the investigation and we should be finishing this up fairly soon,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the business is not regulated by any state agencies.

That’s despite a new law enacted last month that added some sweepstakes games to the state’s definition of gambling.

BIGS Cafe – an acronym for business, Internet, games and sports – had been operating in the Sun Plaza for a little more than a year until its sudden closure within the past few days.

The business bills itself as a “donation center” allowing patrons to “enter free sweepstakes” and reveal results in an “entertaining fashion by playing innocuous style casino games.”

Officials at the state Racing and Charitable Gaming Commission said the gaming cafe didn’t fall under their jurisdiction. And the state Lottery Commission doesn’t have any enforcement authority, a spokesperson there said.

Senior Assistant Attorney General James Boffetti, who runs the Consumer Protection Bureau, said he has been in contact with Nashua police about the investigation, but declined to elaborate.

Boffetti said similar businesses based on sweepstakes entries have popped up around the country, including in Manchester and Seabrook.

A law change signed last month by Gov. John Lynch changed the definition of gambling and gambling machines to include some types of sweepstakes entries. Gambling machines now include games that discharge money or anything that can be exchanged for money, including opportunities to enter sweepstakes, according to the legislative history of the bill.

The business, a limited liability corporation, was founded in May 2011 and is in good standing with the state Secretary of State’s Office. It has an A- rating with the Better Business Bureau with no complaints having been filed.

By Monday afternoon, the doors were locked and shades covered the front windows at BIGS. A portable sign stating “Win Cash Here!” was out front, but the only activity was people coming and going from neighboring businesses.

BIGS Cafe claims on its website, www.bigscafe.com, it is a donation center that raises funds for non-profits and “vital charities such as Homes For Our Troops and COPS for Kids with Cancer,” but the explanation of how donations are raised is difficult to understand.

The website goes out of its way to state that people can win, without purchasing anything. For example, customers can enter free sweepstakes by sending in a form provided by BIGS to their headquarters, or “by asking the clerk on duty to reveal the results at the POS terminal, again for no consideration or for free, or they may choose to reveal their results in an entertaining fashion by playing innocuous style casino-like computer games.

“Whichever way one enters the sweepstakes or chooses to reveal the results,” the site states, “the outcome is always the same and always no purchase necessary.”

In September 2011, BIGS Cafe was a featured “New Business” in The Telegraph. Co-managers Frank O. Godjikian and George L. Woods said they opened BIGS in June 2011 and planned to open 10 more New Hampshire locations within three years. They described BIGS as a “business center” and “Comcast and Ace ticket dealer” that offers “free Internet, computer sweepstakes games and a lounge with food and drink.”

Godjikian said Tuesday that he hasn’t been involved with the business since the end of March and that two other men now own it.

Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com. Also follow Cote on Twitter (@Telegraph_JoeC).

Newsletter