Florida casino bill would help mega resorts and hurt racetracks

There's speculation this could signal the demise or reduction of the pari-mutual and casino-racino industry, the newspaper noted. Saying they want a new “strategic direction” for gambling in Florida, the authors of a casino-resorts bill in the Legislature offer no protections from competition for the state’s existing racetracks and jai-alai frontons.

In a move designed to shift Florida’s gambling focus, two legislators filed bills last Wednesday that would award exclusive full-casino licenses to three massive “destination resorts” and leave the struggling pari-mutuel industry to wither.

The goal of the proposals by Representative Erik Fresen and Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff, “is to reduce gaming in the state and have the kind of gaming that is actually going to produce revenue,’’ Bogdanoff said.

That would mean no equal treatment for South Florida’s eight racinos - race tracks and casinos - which would pay higher tax rates than the new casinos and be allowed to operate only pari-mutuel and slot machines. It would mean no more monopoly for the Seminole Tribe, which would lose its exclusive right to operate blackjack, baccarat and other table games at their seven Florida casinos and would stop making annual payments to the state.

Instead, the bill would allow full Las Vegas-style games at three locations in the two counties that have already approved referendums allowing slot machines - Miami-Dade and Broward. Any other county that wants to compete for the sites would need to pass a referendum authorizing casinos. In exchange for the exclusive license to operate the high-end “destination resorts,” companies would have to prove they will invest us$ 2 billion in their facility. Applicants would pay us$ 50 million for the right to compete for the licenses and would be judged on their ability to draw tourists from Latin America, Asia, Europe and across the US, Bogdanoff said.

The two lawmakers have carefully cleansed the bill of any emphasis on gambling. The 142-page overhaul of state gambling regulations never uses the word “casino,” instead referring to the facilities providing “limited gaming” and calling the legislation the “Destination Resort Act.”
Central to the bill is the creation of a seven-member State Gaming Commission, a new state agency that would screen applicants and award licenses to the top applicants, and assume regulatory control over the state’s gambling structure. But critics said the bill falls short of the promises made by Fresen and Bogdanoff to end unregulated gambling because it does nothing to regulate Internet cafes, the gambling parlors that have installed slots machine look alikes under a loophole in the state sweepstakes law.

“All they’ve done is create very wealthy, legislatively-created patronage positions over casino licenses,” said Marc Dunbar, an expert on gaming law and a lobbyist for Gulfstream Racetrack. The proposal also gives an advantage to the early entrants into the casino debate - the Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, Caesar’s, MGM and Genting Americas.

Genting, the Malaysian-based company, has already purchased The Miami Herald property in anticipation of building a “destination resort” on the site. The other companies have begun talks to consider real estate purchases in downtown Miami or Broward County.