By Regan McCarthy
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-989325.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – Some Florida lawmakers are celebrating a district court ruling that would allow more casinos in South Florida without asking voters to decide. Regan McCarthy reports the legislators are calling the decision a good omen for gaming legislation they hope to release later this month.
Florida is a gambling state. Or at least that's what, some, like Republican Representative Erik Fresen of Miami, would have us believe. Fresen says it's time to pull our metaphorical heads out of the sand and face facts like it or not.
"It's impossible now once you've given licenses and that kind of thing to kind of go back from that. We have the lottery. We have certain things that are just going to be impossible to kind of undo. So recognizing that reality that we are the fourth largest start, then it's really a matter of asking ourselves, A.) Are we doing it the right way? And B.) What should be have and C.) what shouldn't we have?"
Fresen says with or without the bill he's working on in partnership with Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff, a Republican from Fort Lauderdale, gambling is going to keep happening in Florida, but he says what his bill does do is harness the sport, by both regulating it and providing better avenues to take advantage of its revenue. Bogdanoff says one of the main things the bill does is set up a gaming commission.
"Right now we have a department within an agency that is regulating gaming. It has basically grown, I don't want to say unregulated, cause it has been, but it's the type of gaming that no state would want."
The commission would oversee all existing gaming, with the exception of the Florida lottery, and all future gaming including the proposed South Florida resort casinos. Bogdanoff says the legislation also provides avenues for increasing the type of gaming that she says will bring tourism dollars to the state, rather than gaming like internet cafes, which she says cater only to "local people." Senate President Mike Haridopolos says he could get behind gaming that grows revenue for the state. He says it's a discussion worth having and promises that if a bill is filed he'll see to it that it's heard on the Senate floor.
"If we're going to have gambling like that why not have a higher class facility with the fancier hotels the amenities that come with it and bring people from the East coast of America, let alone the South East and across the country. People go to Las Vegas. It's in the middle of the desert. You can image where they'd want to go if the destination was a tropical paradise that is Florida."
Haridopolos says gaming would be an example of a way to grow the state's money without a tax increase. And that's what Fresen says his bill allows for. Beyond regulation, Fresen's bill also makes room for building more casinos in South Florida where citizens have already voted in a referendum to allow gambling. And Fresen says a recent district court ruling will allow lawmakers to speed that process up because they won't have to take another vote before building more casinos, but says a county-wide referendum would be needed before a casino could be built in a new area. The ruling lets the Hialeah Racetrack to add slot machines to its facility. The move was protested by other gaming centers that argued the argued a referendum vote that had allowed them to build didn't apply to new businesses. The judge didn't agree.
The measure has even gotten support from the other side of the aisle in the Senate. But House Speaker Dean Cannon is less forthcoming. Cannon says personally he's opposed the expansion of gambling. And says he's skeptical about the good things some say it could bring about.
"I've heard arguments for example that if you were to allow destination casinos and then constrict or constrain gambling elsewhere in the state, that that might be a net reduction in the state and that that might increase the financial yield."
Cannon says he also doesn't buy that idea that more gambling is a good solution for the state's economic troubles. But he says that doesn't mean the House won't hear the bill. Cannon's not the only one raising some concerns about expanding gambling. Members of the Seminole tribe aren't happy with the idea of vendors from out of the state and out of the country infringing on what's traditionally been their market.