The Honorable Katherine Harris
Secretary of State
PL 02, The Capitol
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0250

Dear Secretary Harris:

By the authority vested in me as Governor of Florida, under the provisions of Article Ill, Section 8, of the Constitution of Florida, I do hereby withhold my approval of and transmit to you with my objections, Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 160, enacted during the 34th Session of the Legislature of Florida and convened under the Constitution of 1968, during the Regular Session of 2002 and entitled: relating An act

Generally, Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 160 would create a requirement for all greyhound-racing pennit holders to provide an adoption booth at the race facility and market a greyhound adoption program to their patrons. The bill also provides for an optional, additional race day with proceeds benefiting greyhound adoption programs. In addition to the greyhound adoption requirements, the bill makes several changes to the regulation of card rooms at pari-mutuel tracks. These changes would allow card rooms to operate during simulcasts in addition to live racing; expand the hours in which card rooms may operate; amend the license fee; and make procedural modifications to allow for a $2 maximum bet per round and limiting the number of raises to three in any round of betting.

Under current law, card rooms can only operate at pari-mutuel facilities two hours prior to the post time of the first live race to within two hours after the conclusion of the last live race, and can only be operated on days when live races are conducted. While the procedural modifications to card games were not objectionable, the bill did include provisions to expand current law by allowing card room operation during intertrack or simulcast pari-mutuel events, as well as live performances.

After the bill was presented to me, good faith efforts were made by pari-mutuel facilities across the state to ameliorate my concerns. They pledged to voluntarily comply with the current restrictions for card room operation only during live racing events and only operate between the hours of noon to midnight. Further, they committed to seek legislation to codify this into law during the next legislative session. While the voluntary concessions, certainly, ease the troubling provisions in the bill, I am disappointed by the fact that some facilities were not willing to make these concessions. More importantly, I have also concluded that setting this precedent is not a path that we should take.

Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 160 began as a well-intentioned effort to help find homes for rescued and retired racing greyhounds and provide them with better treatment. The bill, though, is now a vehicle for the expansion of gambling, increasing the days in which card rooms may operate. It has long been the position of my administration that the expansion of gambling is bad public policy.

For the reasons provided above, I am withholding my approval of Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 160, and do hereby veto the same.

Sincerely,
Jeb Bush