Florida legislators to discuss the matter of Las Vegas-style casinos

The state’s Senate Gaming Committee is expected to discuss reform to existing gaming laws and also the idea of expanding gambling on January 13 in Tallahassee, according to Bizjournals.com. The expanded gambling plan could include the aforementioned type of properties.

A year ago, Malaysian-based gambling company Genting Group announced that it would stop pushing for the approval of a casino-resort in South Florida by voters and would instead wait and see what happens with the state’s two-year survey of the gaming market. Other top gambling firms would love to build in the state for obvious reasons.

The casino is the integral part of the business, but with it would come the usual (for Vegas standards) hotel, restaurants, conference center, and so on. Gambling firms use terms designed to diminish the importance of the casino to the project as a whole. Sort of like how “gambling” was re-branded as “gaming” in order to sanitize the industry in the minds of opponents.

Such a tactic is important for Florida, since some in the state are worried about what casinos would do to the supposed family-friendly image the state possesses.

Disney, which dominates and strangles Florida in multiple senses, has been against casinos, according to previous reports. It’s all about who gets the largest chunk of the tourism dollars. Those who think Disney and giant casino firms could coexist champion the notion that there is essentially no limit to tourism that Florida could see. In other words, infinite growth.

Right now, Florida has racinos and tribal casinos, but those pale in comparison to what developers have in mind to build in Florida should they ever get approval.

Obviously, the gambling groups who currently have businesses in Florida would loathe the idea of the mammoth casino developers setting up shop in their state. Like always, expanded gambling would result in huge winners and huge losers.