Fla. court: Counties could decide on slot machines
Final ruling in one case is sought from state Supreme Court.
TALLAHASSEE — Slot machines could be installed at several Florida dog and horse tracks — including the Palm Beach Kennel Club — if a far-reaching court ruling holds.
A Florida appeals court on Friday ordered state regulators to award a license for slot machines to a facilit y 25 miles west of Tallahassee. The decision has the potential to once again upend the state’s complicated gambling laws that currently limit slot machines to tracks in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and casinos run by the Seminole Tribe.
The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled 2-1 that a state agency should have approved slot machines because voters in Gadsden County approved a referendum authorizing them.
The ruling could have a wide impact because vot- ers in Lee, Brevard and Palm Beach counties as well as the north Florida counties of Hamilton and Washington have approved similar referendums. The judges in their ruling asked the state Supreme Court to make a final decision on the case.
State regulators had turned down the slot machine request due to a legal opinion by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who maintained that state legislators did not intend to allow additional counties to add slot machines at dog and horse tracks outside of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment that authorized slots in the t wo counties.
Bondi’s office said it was reviewing the Friday decision.
Creek Entertainment Gretna opened the track in December 2011 featuring the rodeo-st yle sport of barrel racing. The facilit y offers flat track horse racing as well as poker rooms and betting on races held at other tracks. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation turned down a request for slot machines in late 2013.
Judge Robert Benton wrote that regulators did not base their denial on any errors or omission in the application and instead relied on Bondi’s interpretation. He said Gadsden County was allowed to hold the referendum under a wide-ranging law passed by legislators that authorized the current agreement with the tribe.
State legislators debated Florida’s gambling laws this past session, including whether tracks outside of South Florida should be allowed to operate slot machines. They were unable to reach any agreement.
The Seminole Tribe — which operates casinos in South Florida as well as one in Tampa — is required to shut down blackjack and other card games later this year under a 2010 agreement with the state. The tribe has been pushing legislators to revisit the agreement.