http://www.baynews9.com/article/news...sino-expansion

video:
http://www.baynews9.com/video?clip=h...g_Scott_17.f4v

Is this just talk for now but maybe in a year or so he will change his mind or is this going to ruin the mega resorts plan for when the seminole compact is up in 4.5 years?

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news...ll_the_di.html

From the Miami Herald on Thursday:

From the Orlando Sentinel today:

But Scott has been in talks with Casino execs about the issue. It seems he is looking at legislation to allow destination casinos in South Florida and Tampa, where there is already slots & casino gaming at the Indian casinos and racinos. This will allow him to claim that it isn't really gaming expansion as it doesn't expand casinos to new areas of Florida. While he supposedly wants to keep his campaign promise to not tie the budget to gaming expansion, he still seems to support destination casinos in FL, under the political currency of jobs creation.

If it does happen, I think it will increase the chances of passage of a FL intrastate iPoker bill as well. In fact, the iPoker bill might be the bone thrown to the pari-mutuels to offset their inevitable protests against destination casinos that would increase their competition for gaming dollars.

"Scott said his visit with casino operator Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., was just a stop on the way to the Republican Governors Association meeting in San Diego. Scott did not elaborate, but Sands spokesman Ron Reese called it an "introductory meeting."

The company has been pushing Florida to lift its ban on casino gambling, and Adelson has said he's willing to invest up to $3 billion on a Miami project.

The Republican-controlled Legislature has been reluctant to expand gambling, and many members are opposed on moral grounds. Legislation is expected to be filed this year, though, to allow four or five casino resorts and create a commission to regulate them."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-gambling.html

I'm sure legislation will be filed every year until it gets pushed through. The question is when will the legislation be advanced by the FL legislative leadership to reach a vote. I'd give it about a 15% chance this year, and add another 15-20% each successive year. I'd expect to see the first destination casinos opening their doors right about the time the Seminole compact expires. The tribe will probably welcome it as they will be able to operate their casinos thereafter without any revenue sharing with the state (unless they maybe they get exclusivity for roulette & craps in exchange).

When does the Florida Legislature formally convene?

March 8th. Committee meetings are ongoing during Jan. & Feb.

Expanded gambling may get more discussion from Florida's new leaders

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lot...811,full.story

A very interesting read. This part especially stuck out:

A significant portion of poker income at the FL pari-mutuel cardrooms (4% of gross revenues at greyhound & jai-alai facilities; 50% of net revenues at horse tracks) currently must be contributed to the pari-mutuel wagering prize purses. If the racing is eliminated, we may see benefits accrue to players such as lower rake, more player incentives, etc.

Florida Senate committee gets glowing report on casinos

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/1...ttee-gets.html

"Earlier this week, Haridopolos said he believes there is a ``50-50 chance'' of the Legislature approving casino games this year.
Jones is sponsoring a bill to bring ``destination casinos'' to Florida and said it will be ready in about two weeks. "


"The committee also heard from lobbyists for the Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resort Casinos Tuesday who each said they are interested in attracting new tourists to Florida with promises of high-end retail and convention style casinos that would compete with both Florida's existing horse and dog tracks as well as the seven casinos on the Seminole Tribe's seven reservations."


"If we were looking at destination gaming, it would take four to five years to build one of those complexes out,'' Jones said. ``It would not even impact the compact until the first card would play and that would be three or four years down the road and we're going on our second year of the compact. So that's really a nonissue at this point as far as I see it.''

Is this really better than having one or two casino strips in the state? Seems to me tourists are better attracted to one compact multi-property location.

Is that deposit $600,000 a day, pay $600,000 a day in rake or wager $600,000 a day? Obviously, there aren't 900K Floridians playing poker each day. Where do these statistics come from?

The radius thing shows the monopoly first mentality of the gambling industry and they have a monopoly-pandering Republican majority that can streamline any decision into law instantly. Any player input in Florida, or citizen input for that matter, won't matter. The majority in both Houses(with Republican tendencies to adhere more to party discipline) means the backroom deal more easily becomes the passed deal. If there is anyway to prevent Florida from making harsh protectionist, intrastate poker, we have to be on board with the AGA/license bidders. If I am not mistaken, Wynn was a holdout on the AGA's stance on online poker, and he is meeting with the governor now. Bad sign. If nothing else, it highlights the urgency of making a deal with the AGA, but that is still meaningless with a totally unorganized PPA.

Critics Wager Against Florida Casino Expansion

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/sto...sino-expansion

Bid is in for more Florida casinos

"Jones has said if there is no companion bill from the House, he would not proceed with his."

What does that mean and is it likely to happen?

http://www.news-press.com/article/20...lorida-casinos

If Rick Scott's against this, then he'll seal Florida's fate with no chance of pulling it out of the toilet.

Florida's biggest industry is tourism. Florida also has a slight budget issue (no major problems, just things like dwindling unemployment benefits and food stamp funds, for starters. Just things people need to live).

So, for a man who's campaign slogan was "Let's get to work", and maybe I'm wrong about this and people can correct me, wouldn't creating a ton of jobs in the construction of casino resorts boost the state's economy? The people in construction alone would be thrilled at the prospect, not to mention the creation of jobs for staffing, parking, etc.

Then there's the tax on the gaming and additional cash flow from even more tourist traps and gift shops and so on....it seems like a no brainer.

I don't support his ideas, but if he goes for this, he'll earn a couple points.

Scott is not against this. He is exploring the possibility for all the reasons you stated. The title to this thread is actually misleading. Scott expressed interest in pursing casino legislation, but the next day back-tracked on it a bit, saying that he still doesn't believe that the state should balance the budget on gambling expansion - one of his campaign promises to assuage the religious right voters. He can still use "jobs creation" as his path to support for destination casinos in FL.

Florida Commissioners Vote Against Las Vegas-Style Casinos

http://news.777.com/2011-01/florida-...e-casinos-3126

Note that these are Miami Beach commissioners, not Florida state commissioners. It just means Miami Beach won't be one of the potential locations for destination casinos - at least not without a voter referendum.

Legislation under way to bring Vegas-style hotels to Florida

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...,6071881.story

It is SB1708 .

Cliffs of the bill:

Creates a Destination Resort Commission within the Florida Department of Revenue to license and regulate destination resorts.

Splits Florida into five districts. Each district can have one desitination resort. County voters must approve the resort by voter referundum.

Each destination resort must pay a $1M application fee (non-refundable) and an initial $50M license fee (refundable if license is denied). Each pays $5M license fee per year after first year.

Resorts must contain at least 500,000 square feet of convention space and 1,000 hotel rooms. Gaming area can only be 10% of total square footage.

Resorts pay 10%, 15% or 20% tax on gross gaming revenues to state, depending on their total infrastructure investment:

Authorized games include poker, slots, blackjack, baccarat, craps, roulette and a few others (plus any others approved by the commission). [In other words, full casino gaming.]

Visitors/players must be 21 years of age to enter the gaming area of the resort.

So if this passes then it will automatically include craps and roulette? and then the seminoles could have craps and roulette.

This will be voted on in the coming months? And when would the county vote be?

The Florida legislature is in session starting this week in the House and next week in the Senate. If the bill makes it out of committee, the floor vote would come sometime between now and the end of the session in early May.

The county votes would be much further down the line. First, the commission has to formed. Then the commission has to issue regulations and then issue invitations for applications for licensing. I think the county votes would take place prior to the application submission. In other words, a casino corp would have to secure a referendum vote before submitting an application to get a license to build a resort in a particular county.

Yes, craps and roulette would be included. I'd guess that the timeline before any casino opens its doors would be just about the time the current Seminole compact expires. The Seminoles would get craps and roulette, without revenue-sharing with the state, but technically only after it negotiates a new compact.

Gulfstream Interested in Casino Hotel

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...n-casino-hotel

Tea Party, Scott at odds over expanding non-Indian casinos

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/mar...news-breaking/