Gretna’s Pari-mutuel, Creek Entertainment, is set a ways off the road, down a long drive. Inside are a few tables filled with poker players and several rooms lined with tables and TVs. On this night, viewers shuffle between their chairs and the agent, placing bets on simulcast greyhound races or jailai games. On some nights visitors can catch a horse race in the outdoor arena. Now city officials are hoping the facility holds the key to a brighter future for their citizens. Clarence Jackson is a city council member in Gretna.
“The vast majority of people that live in my city are good people who want to work. Yet, the vast majority of people who live in my city live in abject poverty,”Jackson says.
Jackson spoke before lawmakers during the recent legislative session, hoping for an amendment that would recognize a referendum vote his city had already taken in support of slot machines at Creek Entertainment. He says the addition of slots would create almost as many jobs as he has people living in his community. He said Gretna is at the "door step to its prosperityy" and he wants the legislature to let the city in. But lawmakers like Rep. Charels Van Zant (R-Keystone Heights) said they have serious doubts about Gretna’s argument.
“To listen to the voice of Gretna, if slots come to Gadsden County then we can invite the film industry bill sponsors to remake the film It’s a Wonderful Life. Apparently nobody has looked into the statistics that show when slots come to a community it sucks the money out of the community,” Van Zant says
The amendment was withdrawn by its sponsor. Now Gretna officials are hoping the courts might help them open the door. Attorney Marc Dunbar argued before a Tallahassee Appeals court earlier this month that a referendum vote passed by the city in 2012 is all Creek Entertainment needs to get its slot machines. He says it all comes down to an accurate grammatical reading of this phrase:
“Held pursuant to a statutory or constitutional authorization after the effective date of this section. And the case is all about what after the effective date of this section modified."
Dunbar says the state argues it’s modifying the noun "authorization," but he claims that’s not correct grammar.
“For those English grammar majors out there, they will know that what that is is an adverbial modifier and an adverbial modifier has to modify a verb not a noun. And so in this instance is modifies the verb held.”
Jon Glogau represents the attorney general’s office. He claims the state has taken a clear stance against the expansion of gambling. And during arguments before the court, he raised the question of just how much thought lawmakers had given to the complexities of grammar when drafting the gaming rules.
“The idea that the legislature wrote this sentence with the complex grammatical analysis that the appellants are advocating in their minds is nothing short of preposterous, your honor.”
Glogau says despite the local referendum vote, the city needs approval from the legislature before it can begin offering slots.
Dunbar says a handful of cities across the state are in a similar situation and could be affected by the case’s outcome.
