{"id":12841,"date":"2014-02-25T14:01:45","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T22:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12841"},"modified":"2022-10-22T15:27:39","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T23:27:39","slug":"florida-go-big-or-go-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/florida-go-big-or-go-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida: Go big or go home"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s casino expansion time again in Florida<\/strong>, where a major change of the status quo<\/em> has been unveiled in the state Senate. Pending local approval<\/a>, Miami-Dade County<\/strong> would get one megaresort (minimum investment: $2 billion) and Broward County<\/strong> would get another (ditto). That’s about as close as Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> will probably come to his desired ‘line of death,’ er, ‘zone of exclusivity.’ Outside those two counties, dog and horse tracks would be eligible for slot machines.<\/p>\n

\"Will_Weatherford\"<\/a>Leaving aside the bill’s chances in the upper house, it faces a considerable obstacle in the lower chamber, where casino opponent and House Speaker Will Weatherford<\/strong> (R, right<\/em>) has placed several preconditions on gaming expansion, not the least of which is a renegotiation of the existing compact with the Seminole Tribe<\/strong> — something Gov. Rick Scott<\/strong> (R) probably won’t do one nanosecond before he absolutely must. Scott is also said to look with disfavor upon the Senate’s proposal to create a Department of Gaming Control<\/strong>. Its gubernatorial appointees would dole out casino licenses, among other duties, but Scott apparently wants that remit to stay within his office.\u00a0The three senatorial bills also contain some animal-friendly provisions<\/a>. Dog tracks could hold fewer events per year but would have to report injuries suffered by greyhounds. The loudest howl of protest could be heard from Orlando<\/strong>-based activist John Sowinski<\/strong>. “It’s Christmas in February for out-of-state gambling interests, and their entire wish list can be found in these bills<\/em>,” he railed. Considering that, not so long ago, Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> was proposing to carve up Florida into five casino jurisdictions, all designated for Sands and no one else, I’d say Sowinski is being rather hyperbolic. State Sen. Garrett Richter<\/strong>‘s package of bills does contain this sweetheart provision, though: “a public-record exemptions for casinos from revealing proprietary confidential information when applying for a resort license<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Genting Group<\/strong> is ready to go it alone and has a site in Miami<\/strong>. Sands would likely prefer to fly solo, too, but if it needs a site\u00a0BB&T Center<\/strong> in Sunrise<\/strong>, the Hollywood Diplomat<\/strong> and the Fontainebleu<\/strong> have all made their desires known. Boyd Gaming<\/strong> has an option to develop a casino, should the economics shift in its favor. For now, the non-Seminole industry is mostly slots at parimutuels, not an appealing scenario for the Vegas wing of the industry.<\/p>\n

The Daily Caller<\/strong><\/em> provides a window into the bubble of sycophancy<\/a> that surrounds casino pitchman and sometime nuisance Donald Trump<\/strong>. It’s a scary world to contemplate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s casino expansion time again in Florida, where a major change of the status quo has been unveiled in the state Senate. Pending local approval, Miami-Dade County would get one megaresort (minimum investment: $2 billion) and Broward County would get … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,28,42,36,120,33,111,25,12,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31786,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12841\/revisions\/31786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}