More casinos in Florida? Bet on it
An old gambling joke says the difference between a prayer in church and a prayer in a casino is that, in a casino, you really mean it.
But when it comes to gambling in Florida, the Legislature isn't wasting time on prayers.
It's buying the results it wants — with your money.
The Legislature recently agreed to spend nearly $400,000 to "comprehensively examine gaming issues."
Supposedly, this will help legislators determine whether Florida needs more big-time gambling and casinos.
Except the company they hired to do the study specializes in promoting big-time gambling and casinos.
Spectrum Gaming Group (note the key word there in the middle) actually sponsors the annual Florida Gaming Congress.
Gee, I wonder what it will find.
This would be like contracting Anheuser-Busch to do a study on whether drinking beer is OK.
Of course, legislators and Spectrum say there are no foregone conclusions. You can't buy a predetermined opinion, they say.
Sure you can. Florida has done it before.
A few years back, House Speaker Dean Cannon wanted to bolster his case for oil drilling off the Florida coast. So he commissioned a "study" — using $200,000 of public money — to assess the risk.
The study concluded there were virtually no risks at all.
In fact, the report predicted that the worst-case scenario — an epic spill that might happen once every hundred years or so — might result in only 1,000 leaked barrels or so.
Two weeks later, BP happened … and leakage was estimated at nearly 5 million barrels.
Forget 1,000 barrels every century; Horizon was leaking 1,000 barrels every few hours.
Oops.
The truth is that the Legislature can do whatever it darn well pleases. It usually does. And since it does, I'd prefer these guys not waste taxpayer money justifying plans they're going to ramrod through anyway.
Which brings us to point No. 2: More gambling is coming. Bet on it.
Gambling is on the march across both the nation and state.
Fifteen years ago, if you wanted to find a slot machine in Florida, you had to take a cruise to nowhere or sit inside some aluminum shack playing video versions of "pull-tab" machines run by the Seminole or Miccosukee tribes.
Today, Florida is home to nearly a dozen live casinos — including the Hard Rock in Tampa, which is the sixth-largest … in the world.
Put simply: Big-time gambling is already here.
But we'll see even more for one simple reason: money.
Gambling interests have tons of it. And they are throwing it at anyone who'll take it: Republicans, Democrats, legislators, the governor.
We live in a state full of politicians who use one hand to wag fingers about the supposed immorality of gambling and the other hand to stuff campaign donations in their bank accounts.
Just look at Gov. Rick Scott. Before he was elected, Scott promised the Baptists that he would fight gambling. Yet right after he was elected, Scott jetted off to Vegas to meet with casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who wants to build casinos in Florida — and who later cut a $250,000 check to Scott's campaign.
And now, according to the Sunshine State News, Adelson's lobbyists are telling legislators they should start giving casinos tax breaks and incentives.
Think about that. Legislators supposedly haven't even decided whether they are going to allow more casinos — yet they're already hearing pitches for incentives.
Plus, our state is already addicted to gambling. Legislators balance their budgets every year by relying on everything from the so-called "education lottery" to revenue from horse racing, Indian casinos, jai alai and poker rooms.
Personally, I think more casinos are inevitable. They are sweeping the country, bolstered by Americans' belief that they have a God-given right to do whatever they want with their money.
My own policy approach would be maddeningly simple: Communities that want them can have them. Communities that don't, won't.
That would probably mean more casinos in South Florida but not here in Central Florida.
Miami seems to want them to rejuvenate its downtown and complement its night-life scene. Orlando, however, doesn't think blackjack and slot machines are natural complements for Snow White and Dr. Seuss.
I get all that. Different plans for different communities. Local residents control their own destinies.
What I don't get is why legislators feel the need to waste money on bogus studies or time posturing about morals and deliberations when it's already obvious what they are going to do.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-04-27/news/os-scott-maxwell-florida-casino-gambling-study-20130426_1_florida-gaming-congress-gambling-interests-more-gambling
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