Few places operate under more government scrutiny than gambling casinos. And now that the
Legislature has approved bills allowing slot machines in Broward County, it will be up to the
state to draw up detailed rules of operation.
The Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering will have six months to produce rules governing
all aspects of the slots casinos, which will be permitted to operate at four Broward County
pari-mutuels.
The rules will set out procedures for handling the money from the machines, when they can be
opened, who is permitted to handle the money, how it is counted and processed. They will set out
the background checks required for prospective employees and establish security and
surveillance requirements.
Meg Shannon, spokeswoman for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation,
which includes the pari-mutuel division, said the rule-making process would include a public
workshop and a public hearing, with a draft of the rules released for public comment.
Opponents of gambling have appeared at each step in the slots initiative, fighting it at the ballot
box and pushing bills in the Legislature intended to strangle the pari-mutuels with high taxes and
burdensome regulations.
State Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, a strong slots supporter, said he expected Gov.
Jeb Bush, who opposed slots, to make the rule-making process as difficult as possible for the
pari-mutuels.
"The governor's already said he'd try to throw up all the regulatory roadblocks he can," Geller
said.
Russell Schweiss, spokesman for Bush, said the governor would not be involved in the
preparation of the rules.
On a trip to Fort Lauderdale on Friday, Bush described the slots agreement as a "fair
compromise." Touring Home Diagnostics, a manufacturer of diabetes testing equipment, the
governor described that company as the sort of business he wanted to foster, not the gambling
industry.
"I'd rather be creating jobs in ways people's lives are improved," he said, "[But] the voters did
vote for this."
Rep. Randy Johnson, R-Celebration, a leading foe of gambling, said he and other slots
opponents will try to influence the rule-making process but not with the hope of stopping slots
cold. He wants to make sure the rules "put the people of Florida first" and don't focus on
"maximizing profits."
Johnson said gambling opponents will focus on holding another referendum to get voters to
repeal their approvals of the machines.
Dan Adkins, vice president of Hollywood Greyhound, said he was optimistic the rule-making
process will go forward without interference from the governor.
"I'm not concerned," he said. "I think there will be a good-faith effort."
He said he planned to follow the rule-making proceedings closely, mainly to make sure they go
quickly.
Allan Solomon, executive vice president and general counsel of Isle of Capri Casinos, which
operates Pompano Park harness track, also said he didn't expect a big fight over the rules.
David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.
Staff Writer Jamie Malernee contributed to this article.
Slots deal doesn't make any horse sense
By Fred Grimm
fgrimm@herald.com
© 2005 Herald.com
Horse breeders and racetrack workers donned red T-shirts last year and campaigned hard for
the slot machine amendment.
The red-shirts showed up at public meetings and made gambling skeptics seem as if they didn't
love Seabiscuit. The thoroughbred folks argued that slots would revitalize the fading romance of
parimutuels, except they didn't say much about their ugly cousins over at the dog track, harness
track and jai-alai fronton.
Nor did the Florida Legislature as it hammered out a slots bill last week. The law requires
Gulfstream Park to work out an agreement with horse owners and breeders to augment its
purses with the take from slot machines.
Lawmakers didn't mention purses at Broward's other parimutuels. The doggies, harness nags
and jai-alai players finished out of the money in Tallahassee.
RACINOS
But even thoroughbred folks, with their red shirts, high hopes and fat purses, must be coming to
a cold realization. Slots will relegate horses to a necessary nuisance. ''Slot machines at
racetracks turn racetracks into casinos much more than just enhancing the attractiveness of
racing,'' warned Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and
Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada at Reno.
''What we have here is fundamentally a truth-in-labeling issue,'' said Eadington, who talked
about the ''racino'' phenomenon at the Racing and Gaming Summit at the University of Arizona
two years ago. ``If you have slot machines at racetracks, you really don't have racetracks
anymore. You have casinos that happen to have animals that run in circles.''
Certainly, parimutuels were in deep trouble before the slots amendment passed last year.
Statewide attendance at Florida's parimutuels has fallen from from 10.3 million to 2.8 million
over the past decade.
On my last visit to Dania Jai-Alai, I noticed poker tables (the 1997 edition of the plan to save
parimutuels) were teeming. The actual fronton arena was a forlorn and nearly lonely place.
If jai-alai has become an afterthought to poker tables, imagine a fronton housed with a casino
full of chirping electronic slot machines.
They could race Chihuahuas at Hollywood Greyhound Track, Shetland ponies at Pompano, bet
on fighting cocks at Dania and no one would care. Least of all, the racino owners.
To save a fading entertainment, we've awarded parimutuel license holders billion-dollar
franchises. It's like sheltering a homeless wino in a Star Island mansion.
WEIRD LOGIC
A year later, it seems an arbitrary gift, especially as we hustle the Marlins out the door rather
than pay for a new baseball park. Perhaps the baseball team should have suggested raising the
money with 1,500 video slots cooing like electronic doves in the bowels of the stadium.
At least with baseball, animal-rights protesters wouldn't be on the march.
At the gaming summit, Eadington noted that racino slots were ''substantially'' outperforming slot
machines in conventional casinos. More than propping up failing parimutuels, he said, slots
generated huge piles of excess profit. Owners, once racinos were legalized, commonly flip their
licenses for hundreds of millions in profit.
Eadington mentioned an ongoing debate in Maryland, where critics of legalized racinos were
complaining: ''Why should the state just authorize the racing industry to have slot machines
where the value of that franchise probably exceeds a billion dollars?'' he said. ``Can't the state
of Maryland, in its wisdom, figure out a way to capture that economic windfall for its own benefit
rather than for the benefit of the track owners themselves?''
In 2005, we can pose the question another way: Can't the state of Florida figure out a way to
capture the windfall profits coming to Broward's parimutuels? Apparently not.
But, hey, we saved the ponies. Right?
Anti-gambling legislators bet voters understand 'yes' vote
© Sarasota Herald Tribune
Article published Sunday, December 11, 2005
The shadow battle last week over lawmakers' decision to finally approve slot machines in four
Broward County pari-mutuel facilities was the battle for conservative voters next year.
Most Republicans, including Gov. Jeb Bush and House and Senate leaders, support a repeal of
last year's constitutional amendment that gave Broward County voters the chance to approve
the slot machines this year.
The state is not a gambling virgin. Besides the Lottery, Indian casinos are around the state, as
are greyhound and horse tracks, and jai alai frontons -- all of which host low-stakes poker
games. Also, "cruises to nowhere" take gamblers to international waters for legal gaming.
Still, the first legal slot machines in the state besides the Indian casinos have become a
measuring stick for lawmakers' conservative credentials.
Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, is a bit of a come-lately to the ardent anti-gambling crowd, a point his
opponent for next year's chief financial officer race -- Rep. Randy Johnson, R-Celebration -- is
reminding voters about.
And GOP gubernatorial candidate and current CFO Tom Gallagher has also ripped his
opponent, Attorney General Charlie Crist, for passivity in the face of gambling.
But Crist, like Bush and most other Republicans, sans Johnson, said lawmakers had to pass a
gambling bill to meet their constitutional requirements and that a "yes" vote on the bill last
week wasn't a vote for gambling. And they vowed to repeal the amendment next year.
Any doubt that passionate anti-gambling forces would share that pragmatism, however, was
dismissed with a press release from the Christian Coalition of Florida less than an hour after the
bill was passed Thursday.
"Today's vote is nothing more than a welcome mat for Vegas-style casinos," the release said.
"Basing government revenue on the vices of people is not good policy and that's exactly what
this legislation does."
Bright futures
Two events happened last week that could affect the popular Bright Futures college scholarship
program.
An education task recommended changing part of the Bright Futures program to provide more
incentives to low-income students who need financial aid, while limiting the lower-end awards to
students with higher incomes.
At the same time, Republican senators designated Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, as their
next Senate president. Pruitt will run the Senate for two years following the November 2006
elections.
Those events are not unrelated, as Pruitt is seen as one of the staunchest legislative champions
for the Bright Futures program, which began in 1997 and uses Lottery proceeds to pay for full or
partial scholarships for more than 130,000 students.
In 2003, Pruitt toured the state in a school bus defending the Bright Futures program after some
lawmakers suggested changing some of the criteria for qualifying for the awards. Nothing was
changed.
If education officials want to change the Bright Futures program in the next few years, they're
going to have to convince Pruitt of the necessity for change.
As lawmakers ended a four-day special session last week, Pruitt said he has not had time to
review the new Bright Futures report. But he also noted it would ultimately be up to the
Legislature to decide whether to change the program.
"I always keep my mind open," Pruitt said. "But Bright Futures has had some awesome results,
and I never try to mess with anything that is working."
But Pruitt said he believes the existing program already provides an avenue for low-income
students to go to college, noting that 30 percent of the Bright Future recipients are eligible for
needs-based financial aid.
"It's not like poor kids can't get into it. They have every opportunity just like every other kid,"
he said.
Pruitt said he likes the idea of students competing for scholarships that are based on classroom
achievements.
"It's a great value to be able to teach your kids to work hard and play by the rules and you'll be
rewarded," he said. "That's what Bright Futures does, and that's why it's working."
Compiled from reports by Joe Follick and Lloyd Dunkelberger of the Capital Bureau in
Tallahassee.