The statistical origin of the entropy of charged black holes in models of
induced Einstein-Maxwell gravity is investigated. The constituents inducing the
Einstein-Maxwell action are charged and interact with an external gauge
potential. This new feature, however, does not change divergences of the
statistical-mechanical entropy of the constituents near the horizon. It is
demonstrated that the mechanism of generation of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy
in induced gravity is universal and it is basically the same for charged and
neutral black holes. The concrete computations are carried out for induced
Einstein-Maxwell gravity with a negative cosmological constant in three
space-time dimensions.Comment: 16 pages, latex, no figure
