Appeals Court Allows Slot Machines Anywhere in Florida

Ruling will allow slots in Broward and Miami-Dade

State lawmakers can authorize slot machines anywhere in Florida, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal affirmed a prior decision that could open the door to letting the Legislature permit casino resorts in the state.

More immediately it makes Hialeah's race track eligible for slots although the opinion is likely to be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.

Competitors had challenged a law passed last year that allows slots at Hialeah Park. They argued Hialeah didn't qualify under a state constitutional amendment voters passed in 2004.

The amendment permitted slots at seven horse and dog tracks and jai alai frontons that met certain criteria in Miami-Dade and Broward counties if approved through local referendums.

Circuit Judge James Shelfer of Tallahassee last year dismissed part of a lawsuit and ruled the amendment didn't prevent the Legislature from approving additional slot machines anywhere.

The appeals court panel unanimously agreed, saying the only thing the amendment limited was the Legislature's authority to prohibit slots at certain facilities in the two counties.

There's no indication "voters intended to forever prohibit the Legislature from exercising its authority to expand slot machine gaming beyond those facilities," District Judge Marguerite H. Davis wrote for the panel.

"Nor is there any indication that Florida voters intended to grant the seven entities who met the criteria in a constitutionally-protected monopoly over slot machine gaming in the state," Davis added.

The Legislature for years had refused to permit slots and other casino-style gambling until 2010. Besides the slots law, lawmakers last year also endorsed a 20-year compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that guarantees the state about $1.3 billion over the first five years and more later in exchange for the expansion of gaming at the tribe's casinos.

Voters also rejected three prior casino gambling amendments.

Broward voters passed a slots referendum in 2005, but a similar vote failed in Miami-Dade that year. Miami-Dade voters subsequently approved slots in 2008. In each case, though, only those facilities that had live racing or jai alai games in 2003 and 2004 qualified.

Hialeah had suspended racing during that period.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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