With the end of the current legislative session coming on May 2nd, the odds of seeing a deal that would either limit or expand casino gambling in the state of Florida are becoming slimmer every day. A recent panel of gambling industry experts meeting in Miami said they didn’t think this would be the year to see any kind of definitive legal answer to the debate. Meanwhile, Florida Governor Rick Scott continues to negotiate with the Seminole Indian Tribe about the potential of continuing casino exclusivity, which would be due to expire next year.
The Seminole Tribe, which has seen great success with their Hard Rock Casino resorts in the state, is part of a disparate group that opposes any expansion of gambling in the state. Joining the Seminoles are an array of business and commerce groups, family groups, and most recently even the Disney company who all think any additional gambling options in the state would have a flat to negative impact on the economy by ‘cannibalizing’ existing tourism options, creating lower wage jobs, and potentially even bringing crime to the state.
On the other side of the debate are members of the Greyhound Racing industry, as well as traditional casino groups who would like to see expansion of the current gambling laws. Greyhound Track owners and operators would like to see decoupling of their gambling operations from greyhound racing only; which would allow them to operate casinos in other locations. Meanwhile, traditional casinos from other parts of the country looking to come into the state after laws would allow their expansion believe there is only room for growth for everyone. New casinos would not ‘cannibalize’ existing tourism, but only help it by bringing in new visitors who would want to do other activities beside gambling.
Another group on the gambling expansion side of the debate are various coalitions of construction companies and contractors. These groups believe that expanding gambling would be a big shot in the arm to the State’s economy in the form of increased building projects and high skilled jobs needed to build and operate modern casino operations.
The debate continues amid a recent report published by the Seminole tribe showing that they have enjoyed a large increase in non-gambling revenue recently. The revenue from restaurants and entertainment grew 25% for Seminole Casinos in 2012, while similar revenue was flat for Indian Casinos throughout the nation. Both sides of the debate could draw their own conclusions from this; groups against expansion can conclude that this is evidence that the market for gambling is essentially saturated. On the other side though, pro expansion parties see a robust market with diverse interests that could inject new life into Florida tourism.
With only a few weeks left in the current session, and the fact that it would take a constitutional amendment to expand the current state gaming laws, many people would bet that any resolution will probably happen next year.