Revenue from these machines would have been a great asset to the airport, which has been undergoing tough times throughout the recession. The idea of slots, however, was shot down by the Department of Business Professional Regulation. Since statutes governing pari-mutuel permits bar a government, be it local or county, from receiving a pari-mutuel permit, the County had been denied.
The state said that a number requirements were not made by the county when it submitted the application, including not demonstrating it could set up the gambling operation in one year, after being permitted and for not proving the entire location was available for use as a parimutuel operation, according to the Herald. Regulators also cited reasons including Miami-Dade County's failure to qualify as a 'person'' under state licensing laws.
County officials had hoped adding slot machines beyond the security checkpoints would add some much needed revenue to a cash-strapped budget and they had expected to almost double to us$ 1.1 billion by 2015 mostly due to construction.