Florida casinos
I'm posting this as a response to the "ocean jewel" thread, so it doesn't become a total hijack, since it deals with dog tracks and Hard Rocks, not boats.
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man this class 3 thing would be AWESOME for florida... get that damn republican out of office already.... this would make Tampa and Hollywood both class act destinations for poker...
is the "broward" slot machines the normal kinds you find elsewhere in AC and vegas? I thought the slot machines at the Hard Rock Tampa were all tied together or something like that...
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To answer your question from the other thread, PhatCasino, the reason people say the Seminole machines are all tied in together is because Seminole's players play bingo against one another via these machines - hence, they are playing a Class II game, like bingo or poker, and not Class III house-backed slots. Most players don't pay the bingo portion of the game any mind, and some do and end up with the money.
As to the potential for Class III games in Florida, the Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale's newspaper) reported today that the state legislature will convene for a "special session" in October or November to draft rules for the "slot machines" approved by ballot in March.
I put "slot machines" in quotation marks because the debate in Florida has been whether the wording of the law allows for RNG-powered, house-backed slots or video bingo machines with slot "entertainment", like the Seminoles have in their Hard Rock properties.
Of course, the constitutional amendment that allowed for the votes (Miami-Dade County voted against the slots) set a deadline for enactment of slot laws at July 1. That date has come and gone with little fanfare. A Broward judge ruled that the slots were good to go on July 1, but without rules, none of the four authorized pari-mutuels have acted.
Anyway, with the passing of the Broward act, the Seminoles petitioned for negotiations for Class III gaming in March. Bush "opened" negotiations in June, and there's been no reported developments since. Bush has been quoted as entering the negotiations with limiting gambling in mind. Most articles talk about "revenue sharing" as one of the sticking points.
For the record, the federal laws say that the state need not enter into a pact, but only negotiate "in good faith", with the Interior Department taking action of they don't.
In other words, this will take some time. But, unless the anti-gambling legislators win their argument that "slot machine" means "bingo", Florida will get at least two proper casinos - one an hour's drive from Disney World, that already fills 50 tables 7 nights a week with $2 max-bet poker.
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