Land-based Casino Gambling in Florida

[Helping Hands]

gaming

I worked in the gaming industry for 11 years and I can tell you from my own experience and having friend who dealt cards, craps, worked the slot floor. as far as income. All of the above make triple what a teacher averages. and a cocktail waitress can survive on working one day a week. It is a very lucrative salary. I just tell people look at it as if entertainment, how much would you spend on going out to eat, take in a comedy or musical concert, satying in a hotel and being pampered. There will always be addictions in life, thats when you find out who you really are, push away from the table and say that was fun entertainment but now I have to go home.

 

[Matt J]

More today!

wmbb.com - Casinos In Bay County

Many of you commented on our family spring break article saying that Panama City Beach lacks things to do once the sun goes down. And many of your solutions would be to bring in casinos to the emerald coast..but is it even possible?
Interim Executive Director for Bay County’s Economic Development Alliance, Dr. Ed Wright says, “Certainly not been any contact with us, with the Economic Development Alliance here demonstrating an interest and that would be because there is no opportunity here.”
There are only two ways to build gambling establishments in Florida. One is for native american indian tribes to build establishments on their reservations… and the other is pari-mutuel-style, not casino style, card rooms.

Many of you wrote to News 13 saying casinos could be the answer Bay County’s been looking for. But Dr. Wright emphasizes, “For all the reasons people might find an advantage to located new casinos in Bay County you’ll find an equal, maybe even greater outpouring of opposition in terms of what people see as the negative consequences of gambling. “
Gambling in Florida is set to be a hot topic at the upcoming legislative session in March. It’s in law makers hands as to whether the current laws will change.

 

[Kurt]

New Proposal Would Add Casinos In Five More Florida Cities

A major gaming expansion is on the table in Florida as lawmakers begin to weigh the pros and cons of bringing Las Vegas Style Casino Resorts to the Sunshine State. The conversation begins almost a year after the legislature gave exclusive rights to expanded gambling to the Seminole Tribe. Breaking the compact could cost Florida a billion dollars.

As players at Florida?s seven Seminole Casinos are enjoying Black-Jack and other new games brought on by a state compact with the tribe, high rollers from Las Vegas are in Tallahassee to get a piece of the action. Tuesday two major gaming companies asked lawmakers to change state law to allow Vegas-style resort casinos in Florida.

Andrew Abboud, A Vice President at Las Vegas Sands Corporation, says an expansion would bring thousands of jobs to the state. ?Within our property we have three hundred to four hundred entrepreneurs that own shops or restaurants. So we may have nine or ten thousand of our direct employees and we?ll have tenets who employ another five thousand people.?

A gaming expansion could help heal Florida?s anemic budget, but many aren?t ready to take that gamble. Sands Corporation representatives met briefly with Governor Rick Scott. Scott?s neutral on an expansion, but doesn?t want to rely on gaming revenues to balance the budget. ?I do not want the budget to be tied to gaming.?

The state collects 400 million from gambling every year. Over the next five years a billion will come from giving exclusive rights to the Seminole Tribe. But if the state gambles on new casinos, they?ll lose the Seminole money.

In the middle once again are the state?s 27 businesses that offer racing along with slots and some card games. They?re back at the capitol to make sure an expansion for Vegas style casino resorts doesn?t leave them holding bad cards.

 

[AndrewG]

I would love it they had it in Panama City. Have all profits go toward college tuition , room & board & books for students.

I hate seeing homeless folks gambling their last few dollars but you can't tell them what to do.

 

[Kayak Fish]

I hope this happens. I guess it takes being broke for a state to wake up and realize a lot of grown-ups like to gamble. Might as well get some of the revenue and jobs in state. Having a lottery but no resort style casinos is the height of hypocrisy.

 

[scooterbug44]

As I read the articles, we are already getting a great deal of revenue from gambling because of the deal made with the Seminoles.

So Scott is literally gambling that breaking that deal and allowing other companies to come in will amount to more than the 1 BILLION we were guaranteed over the next 5 years.

 

[GoodWitch58]

perhaps the Seminoles business is not BIG business enough...

 

[wrobert]

perhaps the Seminoles business is not BIG business enough...

Not nearly after they get the Emerald Grand Casino and Resort up and going just minutes away from the new International Airport. The people that are going to lose on this deal are those Indians in Bruce, by the time they get all the hurdles cleared to be Federally recognized, full blown gambling will be pumping out the cash in Florida. I just hope they keep the smoking ban in place so I can go and enjoy. My Christmas trip to Biloxi was awful. You could not go anywhere without being basked in nicotine.

 

[Kurt]

I would think a couple of dozen casinos each in Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Lake City, Pensacola, and Panama City Beach would generate a lot more revenue and vistors than a handful of measly native american places. Then again I never really understood how the system works and who the real money men are behind the Seminole nation.

Why Lake City? I assume a lot of business would zip down I-75 from Atlanta, especially on weekends.

 

[Kayak Fish]

Florida Senate committee gets glowing report on casinos - Legislature - MiamiHerald.com

From the article:

Jones said he's not worried about the impact of casino gambling on the state compact with the Seminole Tribe because the 20-year agreement with the state is subject to review in five years. In that time, the tribe guarantees it will pay the state at least $1 billion.
``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.''

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