The widely watched proposal to bring massive luxury casinos to South Florida could lead to expansions of gambling in the rest of the state.
In the first legislative hearing on the heavily lobbied effort to allow up to three destination resort casinos in South Florida, Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff (R-Fort Lauderdale) said the bill (SB 710) had to be written in a way that allows other counties outside South Florida that approve slots at pari-mutuel racetracks to have destination resorts.
Casino operators interested in building destination resort casinos in Florida say the required $2 billion minimum investment required by the bill makes it nearly impossible to build anywhere but South Florida.
“I think the market will ultimately bear out whether some of these facilities would like to go beyond (South Florida),” Bogdanoff said.
Casino operators confirmed that while there is interest in allowing destination resorts in other parts of the state, it isn’t practical given the massive minimum investment.
Alan Feldman, the senior vice president of MGM Resorts, said he met with officials in Jacksonville over whether a destination resort could be built there.
“There would be opportunity for this across the state of Florida if the bill was structured differently,” Feldman said. “At $2 billion, this is a South Florida bill.”
Gadsden County, in North Florida, approved a voter referendum in January to allow slots at a new horse track. Palm Beach County commissioners will decide next month whether to allow voters to approve slots at race tracks. These facilities believe a loophole in an existing law permits them to offer slots already.
That would also mean that counties where voters approve slots could eventually bring destination resorts to their area.
“When we wrote this we had absolutely no idea Gadsden County was going to do what they did,” Bogdanoff said.
Lawmakers heard from stakeholders impacted by the destination resorts proposal Wednesday during an information-only meeting of the Senate’s Regulated Industries Committee.