Calder racing to get slots in time for Super Bowl
By Michael Vasquez
mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com
© 2009 Miami Herald
Monday, June 8, 2009

When football fans from around the world descend upon Miami-Dade County in February for the Super Bowl, they'll find South Florida's newest ''racino'' right next door to LandShark Stadium.

Calder Race Course's 104,000-square-foot, $85 million slots casino -- which officially broke ground last week and is slated to open just in time for the big game -- is one of several slots palaces in the works at Miami-Dade parimutuels.

Flagler Dog Track is in the midst of its own $45 million to $50 million ''Magic City Casino'' renovation that will add 700 slots and a 2,000-seat amphitheater to its existing dog racing and poker offerings. Also planning slots -- but not as far along in the process -- are Miami Jai-Alai and historic Hialeah Park.

''We're very excited about our location,'' Calder President and General Manager Tom O'Donnell said. O'Donnell predicted ''a whole lot of foot traffic in this area'' come Super Bowl week.

The horse track, which has not offered poker in years, will also be launching a new 30-table poker room.

In Broward, there are currently three parimutuels offering slots, with a fourth considering slots in the future.

Critics of Florida's gambling boom question the economic development promises made by casino operators, and say casinos ultimately do more harm than good.

Casinos ''become the paramount influence on government,'' said former Miami Beach Mayor Seymour Gelber. ``Everything revolves around them, because there's so much money involved.''

Gelber -- who years ago helped prevent casinos from opening in Miami Beach -- acknowledges that the pro-gambling forces have the momentum now, though he says it's still too early to concede defeat.

Has South Florida turned into a Las Vegas with beaches? Not yet, but 2009 will go down as the year that Vegas-style slots -- which are already in Broward -- came to Miami-Dade.

Voter referendums in Miami-Dade and Broward allowed horse tracks, dog tracks and jai-alai frontons to install slots, though none of the facilities already built in Broward -- or going up in Miami-Dade -- have yet matched the glamour of Vegas.

But the addition of slots spurred an expansion of gambling throughout the state, -- especially in South Florida. Slots led to South Florida's only Vegas-style resort -- the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood -- offering blackjack and other banked card games.

The most recent legislative session in Tallahassee produced new gambling rules that would allow high-stakes, no-limit poker throughout Florida for the first time. The Seminole Tribe must agree to those new rules before higher poker limits become final.

In Hialeah, city leaders are hoping slots will revive Hialeah Park Race Track, a National Historic Landmark that has been slowly decaying since it hosted its last horse race in 2001. Thanks to last-minute arm-twisting by the Miami-Dade legislative delegation, the state Legislature this year granted Hialeah Park the right to install slots, provided it runs two years of live racing first.

Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina says the plan is to surround the reopened track with a movie theater, bowling alley, cafés and restaurants.

''When you talk about history, when you talk about emotionally for the city of Hialeah, nothing compares to opening this up,'' Robaina said.

Slots aren't expected to arrive at Hialeah Park until late 2010 or early 2011, Robaina said, with some of the other planned amenities opening several years later.

Miami-Dade parimutuels, meanwhile, are busy buying construction materials and planning their grand openings. Flagler Dog Track's multimillion-dollar renovation is just the first phase of its slots-geared remodeling. Future phases will more than double the number of slots, while adding restaurants, bars and a nightclub.

''It's going to be more than just a casino,'' said Isadore Havenick, vice president of the company that owns Flagler. ``It'll be entertainment.''