Court upholds Hialeah's slot machines, last chance blow to competitors

The Florida Supreme Court on Friday quietly upheld a lower court ruling allowing Hialeah Racetrack to offer slot machines.

The court dismissed appeals by Calder Race Course, West Flagler Associates with owns Magic City Casino and Florida Gaming Centers, which owns Miami Jai Alai, who argued that when voters approved slot machines in Miami Dade and Broward they intended to limit the number of permits to the seven parimutuels that were currently operating.

The notice came quietly Friday on a a day otherwise focused on the court's ruling on the Legislature's redistricting maps. The ruling validates a decision by the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee last November which affirmed a lower court decision and said that the law passed by the legislature to allow Hialeah Racetrack to offer slot machines was constitutional.

It also puts an end to the years' long appeal by the racetrack's local competitors who wanted to prevent them from getting the slot machines. The state issued a slots license to the track in 2010 but owner John Brunetti has not installed them.

The appeals court said "the Legislature has broad discretion in regulating and controlling pari-mutuel wagering and gambling under its police powers." Judge  Judge Marguerite H. Davis wrote that the constitutional amendment approved by voters "provides no indication that Florida voters intended to forever prohibit the Legislature from exercising its authority to expand slot machine gaming beyond those facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties meeting the specified criteria.

Casinos on the 2014 ballot? Political committee lays the groundwork

After failing to persuade the Florida Legislature to pass a bill to open South Florida to mega resort casinos, gambling interests have taken the first steps to bring the issue directly to voters in 2014.

A political committee under the name of “New Jobs and Revenues for Florida” was created April 10 with the purpose of promoting a “statewide constitutional initiative re gaming.” The committee chairman is Tallahassee lawyer and lobbyist John French and its treasurer is political committee consultant and accountant Nancy Watkins of Tampa. Download New Jobs and Revenues for Florida Committee

The only group so far that has expressed an interest in conducting a petition drive to bypass lawmakers and go directly to voters is the Genting Group, the Malaysian-based conglomerate that has kept a low profile since a House committee knocked its chances off the legislative agenda in mid-session.  

Florida lawyers hit jackpot, representing gaming interests in Tallahassee

Just last month, Florida’s lawmakers put legislation to legalize destination resort gambling on hold. But even without the mega-casinos, Florida lawyers continue to hit the jackpot, reaping significant business from a gaming industry that promises more growth in the state.

This recent push to approve Las Vegas-style gambling started when Malaysia-based Genting Group, one of the biggest international casino developers, entered Florida in a big way a year ago. It bought the giant waterfront Miami Herald property in downtown Miami for $236 million and announced it wants to build a mega-resort casino on the site.

To accomplish its goal, Genting hired two South Florida law firms for its real estate, zoning and land-use work. At Akerman Senterfitt, managing partner Neisen Kasdin represented Genting in its land acquisitions and continues to handle its land-use, zoning, environmental and permitting needs. “There are still ongoing site development issues,” Kasdin said. Genting also hired Al Dotson and Vicki Garcia-Toledo at Bilzin Sumberg in Miami to handle land-use and development-rights issues related to its downtown Miami property.

Of course, Genting also hired a team of lobbyists across the state to gain approval for casino legislation in Tallahassee. Even though proposed legislation died, Genting’s effort to bring destination resort gambling to Florida has just begun. That means the legislative loss should result in continued work for Florida lawyers as Genting contemplates its next move.

Read the story here: 

Legislators reject attempt to clarify regulation of slot machines

State gambling regulators are in a bind.

They have indirectly authorized the expansion of gambling in the past six months as lawyers for parimutuels found holes in state laws and opened the door to slot machines at parimutuels across the state and table-game look-alikes at existing racinos.

Now state regulators worry that Florida’s porous gambling laws also might come with a cost: the loss of the $233 million annual check from the Seminole Tribe of Florida under its gambling compact with the state.

Tuesday, lawyers for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation asked the Legislature for help in closing one of the loopholes that, they fear, threatens the compact with the tribe. They were turned away.

Casino debate may be dead, but it's changed Miami landscape

The bill to bring casino gambling to South Florida may be dead for now, but the issue has reshaped the region’s business landscape in ways likely to last for years.

Nine months after Genting stunned Miami with its $236 million purchase of prime waterfront land and launched a divisive debate over the future of South Florida’s economy, interviews with advocates on both sides reveal much has changed.

Miami gained a major new player on its corporate roster: Genting, the Malaysian-based casino giant that now can claim one of the largest commercial real estate holdings in Miami. Business groups and community leaders picked sides on an issue that has been percolating for years, while South Florida itself quickly emerged as a potential powerhouse in the increasingly competitive casino market.

Here’s a look at the legacy — for now — of South Florida’s casino battle:

Lines finally drawn on casinos: In recent years, Las Vegas Sands and Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau pushed efforts to loosen Florida’s gambling laws to allow casinos beyond Indian lands, racetracks and jai-alai frontons. As early as 2008, aides to Boca Raton developer Art Falcone were organizing a lobbying effort to allow a casino on a downtown Miami site he owns. More here.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/03/2623745/casinos-in-limbo-but-the-issue.html#storylink=cpy

Fresen says casino bill is 'dead for the year'

Rep. Erik Fresen, who had been meeting with members for days to rustle up the votes, was resigned to the fact that the effort to pass a resort casino bill is done.

"I think it's dead for the year in the House,'' he told reporters after pulling his bill before the House Business and Community Affairs Committee could vote. "Adding, I can't speak for the Senate.''

He said he wasn't disappointed, in part because he never expected the bill would be easy to pass in the conservative House.

"To be disappointed would be that I had expectations of incredible victory on this bill,'' he said. 

Tribe to Legislature: You regulate, not ban, Internet Cafes, you lose our cash

As the bill to bring resort casinos to Florida appears doomed, the legislative battle shifts to the debate over whether legislators should regulate or outlaw the slot-machine look alikes operated by the so-called Internet Cafes under a loophole in the state's sweepstake's law.

As that debate moves to center stage, a legal opinion written for the Seminole Tribe of Florida dated Feb. 1 could be a game changer.

"...it is our opinion that SB 380/HB 467 would authorize the play of gaming devices that would violate the Tribe's exclusivity,'' wrote Joseph Webster of the Washington, D.C. firm of Hobbs, Staus, Dean & Walker in a five-page letter to the tribe's general counsel Jim Shore.

Fresen releases casino amendment for Friday show-down

It’s D-Day on Friday for casino gambling in Florida.

The bill to bring three resort casinos to South Florida gets its first – and possibly only – House hearing as the Business and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee takes up Rep. Erik Fresen’s long-awaited bill.

Late Wednesday, Fresen released a 146-page amendment to his bill that includes a handful of changes designed to help win support for the effort. His bill imposes a one-time $125 million licensing fee paid for by the resort casinos with the intention of using some of the money to buyout existing horse and dog tracks.

The measure also bans, does not regulate, Internet Cafes and gives the state’s existing slot racinos in Miami Dade and Broward a 10 percent tax rate, as long as they guarantee customers get a 90 percent payout on their slot games.

Photo: Casino supporters on Thursday positioned six mock mannequins throughout the Capitol in an attempt to demonstrate the people who could benefit from the job creation brought by the bill.

House keeps Internet Cafe ban alive

The House Economic Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to outlaw the so-called Internet Cafes that operate video slot machines in strip malls across the state, ignoring claims that it will lead to the loss of 13,000 jobs and set up a conflict with the Senate.

The bill by Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, has the support of Attorney General Pam Bondi and the other Cabinet officers. It would close the loophole in state law that now allows the slot machine look alikes to operate in more than 1,000 locations under a loophole in the state's sweepstakes law.

"This resets the button back,'' Plakon said. "We have three choices: ban, regulate, or look the other way."

North Florida counties approve slots but court battle awaits

Voters in the rural counties of Gadsden and Washington became the first in the state to agree to install slot machines outside of Miami-Dade and Broward on Tuesday, approving referendums allowing their local horse and dog tracks to offer the Las Vegas-style games.

Gadsden County voters approved slots 63 to 47 percent, while Washington County voters had a 57-43 percent split with some precincts still reportiong. 

But despite their victories, the slot machine battle is likely to be headed for court. The state agency that regulates pari-mutuel gambling has said it will not sanction the games, citing a non-binding opinion from the attorney general who has ruled that the state has no authority to authorize slot machines outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Meanwhile, as state regulators balk, legislators have quietly stepped in with an Election Day deadline of their own.