1619-5-10 Does Florida need casinos ? Herald Campaign Editor John Pancake contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: GAMBLING CASINOS LAW
TAG: 9403150852
133 of 285, 33 Terms
mh DOES FLORIDA NEED CASINOS? 10/23/1994
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1994, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: VIEWPOINT PAGE: 1M LENGTH: 113 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Seymour GELBER
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: SEYMOUR GELBER Special to The Herald
MEMO: NO
DOES FLORIDA NEED CASINOS?
As a public official, I was intrigued when the casino gambling blitz first
hit this state. Casinos would bring rivers of money to increase the size of
our police force, repair our rotting infrastructure and build new parks and
schools. It sounded good. Too good.
Then the promoters came out of the woodwork. Basically they were the same
group of gamblers who had turned Las Vegas into a gambling factory and
Atlantic City into a glorified slum. Once all the implications became clear,
the prospect of having casino gambling frightened me. I envisioned 500 buses a
day coming in
from Kissimmee, clogging Miami Beach streets and burdening our city.
I realized that this monster would co-opt and control our city's life.
Our economy, our politics, our social and cultural pleasures would all play
second fiddle to the needs of casino gambling. Miami Beach is the casino
proponents' main target, but they are salivating at the thought of devouring
Florida in its entirety.
These are pirates coming to plunder. Are ‘`you willing to pay the price?
Las Vegas is a city with one of the highest school dropout rates in the
country, and it has a new class of compulsive gamblers. Its need for social
services has skyrocketed. How about Atlantic City? Here's a city that had hit
rock bottom before casinos, and it's still as bad off as ever. Those are our
two models. Take your choice.
Do you know what a gambling casino is really about? It's not the glamour
of a croupier at a baccarat table, or Humphrey Bogart in a tuxedo shooting
craps with Ingrid Beryman rooting him on. It's slot machines. That's where the
real money is. How many slot machines in Vegas? Try 130,000.
Another fright. Once you vote this in, the Florida Legislature must adopt
laws governing casino operations. Then watch the money flow to state
legislators, local officials and lobbyists. A few years ago TV videos showed
some South Carolina legislators stuffing their pockets with gambling money.
And The New York Times reported that some Louisiana legislators openly
received $2,500 campaign contributions from the gaming boys on the floor of
the Legislature. Big-time corruption will become a cottage industry in
Florida.
But what's the bottom line? What's the payoff for Joe Citizen? Maybe it's
so big we can live with the devil.
Tax revenues? According to the estimates provided by the gambling forces,
in 1997 casino gambling will provide Florida $400 million in direct taxes.
Sounds good, although it is only half of what our state lottery currently
brings in. Florida gets 38 percent from lottery ticket purchases while
gambling casinos
average only a 7.5 percent tax nationally. State casino taxes will constitute,
at best, only a little more than one percent of our total state revenues.
Jobs? There will be some added construction jobs at the beginning but, at
best, the new casino jobs will only equal the ones lost. In a study of
employment in 12 Illinois cities with riverboat casinos, 11 cities showed a
net loss of jobs. Simply
put, gambling casinos induce people to spend their money solely on slots, not
on clothing, food and items ordinarily purchased in neighborhood businesses.
In Atlantic City, within 10 years after the arrival of casino gambling, 40
percent of its restaurants went out of business.
Let me quote an expert, Steve Wynn, the dean of casino gambling, who
explained the facts of life to a group of Connecticut businessmen: "Get it
straight. There is no reason to believe that people who come to patronize
casino gambling will patronize your local stores."
Everyone agrees that while casino hotels will thrive, the others will
suffer badly. Miami Beach hotels, like most good hotels in Florida, charge on
average $150 a night. Casino hotels charge about $50 for lodging and provide
fine food at inexpensive prices. They are self-contained, designed solely to
keep you inside, a prisoner of the slots. How will other hotels compete? What
the low rate on gambling casinos really means is that the state will, in
effect, subsidize casino hotels.
And what about the Indians? Do we really need to circle the wagons, or in
fact is it the Las Vegas cowboys from whom we need protection? True, Indian
gambling on reservations is on the rise and their revenues are not taxable.
But there still is a long legal battle ahead and they may yet lose. The irony
is that the only way the Indians can get casino gambling in Florida now is for
us to pass this pro-casino constitutional amendment.
And then there's the catchall when all other arguments fail: "If we don't
do it, someone else will. "
* The riverboats? Some few people in North Florida will drive to Biloxi
to play the riverboat slots. But so what? Most riverboats have nothing to do
with the river and aren't boats. They are a gimmick to make people think that
somehow the slot machines aren't contaminatingr the city proper.
* Cuba, when Castro is gone? (They're digging hard now. ) Pre-Castro Cuba
had some of the biggest mob-run gambling casinos around. People came here to
vacation and some went off to Havana for a weekend. Just as tour companies now
arrange that extra trip to the Bahamas or other gambling islands, so they'll
visit post-Castro Cuba. It's no big deal.
* Other states will beat us to it? Most of the new casinos are in the
Midwest and on the Mississippi River. Of the locations where casinos are
planned, only Chicago and New Orleans vie with us for conventions, but neither
one has the sea, the sun and the sand that we offer.
Casino gambling will not automatically bring the mob down to run our
cities, although the Gambino family was reputedly involved in 17 indictments
in Louisiana for skimming profits
from video poker gambling. To prevent this the states of Nevada and New Jersey
provide gaming commissions at a cost of about $50 million. The early history
of casinos in Las Vegas shows that the mob built and ran them.
I suggested to gambling proponents that perhaps there would be more
acceptance of the European-type casino, where gambling is treated as an
amenity. This would mean that some of the larger hotels would have small
casinos, with restricted hours, limited attendance, tight controls and no
slots. Just a few tables for casual gambling. They laughed at my naivete. One
told me: "We're out to make big bucks. If tourists want amenities at a hotel,
they can go to the tennis courts or to the sauna."
We are at a crossroad. Ask yourself, "Can we afford this risk?" Let's not
be taken in by the lure of easy money. This disaster can be avoided by simply
saying "No" on Nov. 8.
Miami Beach Mayor Seymour Gelber, a former judge, is Dade County chairman
of No Casinos, the statewide anti-casino campaign. He wrote this article for
The Herald.
KEYWORDS: OPINION STATISTIC
TAG: 9403150327
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mh CASINO FRIENDS, FOES GIRD FOR HIGH-STAKES VOTE 12/27/1985
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1985, The Miami Herald
DATE: Friday, December 27, 1985 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: 1A LENGTH: 210 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Miami Beach marquees supported casino GAMBLING
in 1978 (-LEGALIZED DADE)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: MARK SILVA Capital Bureau Chief
DATELINE: TALLAHASSEE
MEMO: see also THE EIGHT BIGGEST BACKERS, LIFTER profile,
WORDING 12A
CASINO FRIENDS, FOES GIRD FOR HIGH-STAKES VOTE
Pat Mason of Hallandale won $1 million, her prize for pulling three
sevens on a slot machine in Las Vegas.
Jim Teets of Loxahatchee is pocketing a $100, 000 check once a year for 10
years, thanks to his winning night at Nevada's Barbary Coast Casino.
Now, big money is riding on the perennial bet of a handful of hoteliers
that Floridians like Mason and Teets someday will stay home, and that
thousands of tourists will flock to Florida, tb take their chances at the
Sunshine State's own casinos.
Floridians again will have a chance to vote, next November, on casino
gambling.
And once more, the political, religious and business leaders who scuttled
an attempt to legalize casinos seven years ago promise a new crusade.
"This state, with all of its problems, has a bright future. I don't think
you can do anythingbut cloud it with casino gambling," says former Gov. Reubin
Askew, who led the overwhelmingly successful fight against casinos in 1978. "A
state that seeks to build an economic base on exploiting the weaknesses of
its own people -- that does not represent sound thinking. "
The persistent, big-spending hotel owners who have campaigned for a
decade to open Florida to casino gambling count on finding new support among
newcomers. More than a third of Florida's residents are new to the state since
voters crushed casino gambling nearly three-to-one in 1978.
"When our politicians come out and say (casino gambling) is no good for
Florida, I could spit in their eye, " says Sunny Isles Resort Association
president Charles Rosen, a longtime casino advocate. "Our hotels are getting
old and broken down. They're closing up. We need to get hope for the area. "
Casino backers are placing their money this time on a new proposal:
allowing casinos to open only in the largest hotels, with 500 rooms and more,
and only in counties where voters approve them locally. They also have a jump