Should Florida add gambling casinos to its vacation options, alongside sunny beaches and Mickey Mouse?
In Jacksonville, the idea appears to have little traction.
On Friday, the state Senate’s Gaming Committee heard opinions from over 50 constituents on gambling.
“The moral issue is important to me and a lot of people I know, but that’s only a portion of the reason we don’t need it in Florida,” said City Council member Don Redman. “I saw the people in Internet cafes – they were hooked on it, they were addicted. I saw women who would not go home at night.”
The Florida Legislature plans to take up comprehensive state gaming reform in 2014.
One question lawmakers face is whether to allow statewide expansion of resort casinos like those already operated by the Seminole Tribe.
Another is whether to allow card rooms to run independently of racetracks. Current law allows card rooms only at a licensed facility with live racing.
Florida’s gaming industry has transformed over the past 25 years, with the emergence of the lottery, Internet cafes and tribal casinos. But taxation and regulation have not kept up.
A $388,000 study ordered by the Legislature this year found casinos could be a significant driver of growth if concentrated in South Florida.
But the impact would be moderately positive, at best, if spread around the state, because the casinos would be a relatively small part of each region’s economy.
The Senate Gaming Committee followed up the study with four public hearings across the state, including Friday’s in Jacksonville.
Donna Blevins of Iverness said Florida could reap new tax revenue by allowing online poker, citing the growing popularity of tournaments like the World Series of Poker.
But two tourism officials said expanding gambling would threaten, rather than enhance, the state’s economy, by ruining its brand as a family vacation spot.
“In Florida, tourism is already working well. We are number one in the world,” said Richard Cain, a representative of the Florida Attractions Association. “Casinos have seen our business model and that’s why they want to come here.”
On gambling’s social impact, constituents talked about experiences they had with gambling addiction, and the director of Stop Predatory Gambling in Washington, D.C., cited the many times casino operators have said they don’t gamble themselves.
Mike Williams, director of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, said a national police study shows gambling increases prostitution, money laundering and organized crime.
Two local seniors, though, said they enjoy gaming, have seen no crime and said expanding operations in Florida could keep more gaming dollars in state.
The idea of whether to “decouple” racetracks and other pari-mutuel gambling from card rooms sparked a more even debate.
Over the years, owners have added the more profitable card rooms to help prop up racetracks’ falling revenue. Thoroughbred breeders said racetracks have become an important component of their businesses and decoupling might cause the racetracks to fail.
But, William Alexander of Panama City Beach said he favored decoupling racetracks from card rooms so owners could make appropriate business decisions.
“We’ve experienced a 98 percent decline for live greyhound racing,” he said. “It costs more to regulate racing than the tax revenues we receive from it.”