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Florida Senate Approves Slots

Many in Florida never thought that they would see the day when slots were legal. That is not to say that there aren’t people who have been fighting day and night to make slots legal, and just as many fighting to make sure that they aren’t – but in a startling twist for the state of Florida, the Senate voted on Friday to make slots legal at every race track and jai-alai in the state.

This of course does not mean that the bill has been passed – far from it. It still has to go to the House where it is expected to meet with much resistance. Even within the Senate, there were those that saw this as a huge mistake. Senator Ronda Storms said that the slots were like “cancer” and that they would end up with an expansion of gambling everywhere.

The measure, the brainchild of Dennis Jones, passed the Senate 27-11, based mostly on the idea that it could raise between $354 and $500 million for education for the state. The measure will allow Class II slots at 20 horse and dog tracks, and jai-alai frontons across the state. Class III slots are the type of machines that have been awarded in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, and the kind that the Seminoles are able to operate at their casinos.

Storms also pointed out that the state’s sheriffs were opposed to the legalization of slots in their state. She said that they knew the crime that could come from the slots. Jones countered with the fact that in Broward County, crime dropped 7.3% on average when slots were made legal there. He also pointed out that $3 million is going towards increased law enforcement.

 

Back to March 2008 Archive.