Slots, horses could mix at Miami International Airport

By Michel Vasquez
mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com
© 2009 Miami Herald
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

County administrators' push to add slot machines to Miami International Airport could one day require turning an airport parking lot into a horse-racing track, state documents reveal.

The sound of horse whinnies and snorts at MIA is a possibility because the county's bid for slots hinges on the airport obtaining a quarter-horse racing permit.

If successful, the county, with some creative legal maneuvering, would use that permit to add slots beyond the security checkpoints at MIA. Legislation passed by state lawmakers in Tallahassee this year, meant to help revive historic Hialeah Park, allows slots at Miami-Dade quarter-horse tracks.

The county's preference is to never get directly involved with horse racing -- the airport hopes to strike a deal with one of several local existing horse tracks to run the legally required races there.

State law doesn't force the slots casino and horse racing activities to occur at the same place, but they both must occur.

The catch: There's no guarantee the airport could strike a lease deal with a local track, so county administrators have offered the parking-lot race track idea to state regulators as an emergency backup option.

In order to have slots, the county would have to commit two years of 20 to 40 races a year.

The proposed race track would rise on a section of MIA's employee parking.

``The site is sufficient to accommodate a J-loop track that will allow for races of distances generally conducted at quarter horse race meets,'' the county's application with the state's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering states.

Though big enough in size, the land is currently not zoned for horse racing, and public assemblies of more than 1,000 people are not permitted there. In its permit application, the county promises to pursue a rezoning of the land and adds that it ``does not anticipate construction of a racetrack with capacity in excess of 1,000 persons.''

State regulators have yet to weigh in on Miami-Dade County's permit application, and state approval is by no means guaranteed.

If the county-run airport receives the quarter-horse permit -- and, by extension, slot machines -- county commissioners have yet to decide whether they will actually go into the business of gambling.

Commissioners voted last month to pursue the permit in part to preserve the mere option of adding slots in the future. Florida's quarter-horse permit rules are expected to change in the coming months, and those changes would likely shut out most, if not all, new applications.

Quarter-horse racing is a less-glamorous, sprint-like form of horse racing. Though Florida hasn't hosted such a race in more than a decade, the tracks have enjoyed a recent spike in interest because opening a quarter-horse track also allows the addition of more-lucrative forms of gambling such as poker and, in the case of Miami-Dade, slot machines.

County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez supports the slots idea as a needed revenue boost to financially-strapped MIA. The county estimates adding slots could bring in $17 million a year.

But though Gimenez voted in favor of the quarter-horse permit application, he said no one ever told him about the possibility of actually holding races at the airport.

``I'm not OK with that,'' Gimenez said. ``Number one, where are we going to put the employees and their cars?''

If an airport track became the only way for slots to be installed, Gimenez predicted ``there would be a lot of resistance to that'' among commissioners.

To be sure, the much more likely scenario, if slots go forward at MIA, would be the lease of an existing horse track, such as Gulfstream or Calder. Not only is that what the county wants, but local tracks would be motivated to strike such a deal because of the financial boost it could give the purses paid to their horsemen.

That South Florida boasts several local tracks heightens the chances that one facility would agree to terms with the airport, and the county would never have to host or manage its own horse races.

``Gulfstream is actually excited about the opportunity,'' said attorney Marc Dunbar, a lobbyist for the track.

Dunbar, an expert in Florida gaming law who teaches the subject at Florida State University, has also been hired by Miami-Dade County to help put together the airport slots proposal -- at a fee of $400 per hour. Should the county get its slots permit -- but be unable to lease a local track -- Dunbar said races at the airport wouldn't be as peculiar as some might think.

Dunbar noted that in Lexington, Kentucky -- also known as the ``Horse Capital of the World'' -- there is a horse track located directly across from Blue Grass Airport.

Closer to home, Dunbar said Hialeah Park, while not in the airport itself, isn't very far away.

``Those planes fly pretty low and over the top of Hialeah on a pretty regular basis,'' he said.