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 Like it or not, destination casinos will become a reality in South Florida within the next three to five years, gambling-industry experts said Tuesday. To them, the death of a controversial casinos bill last month in the Florida Legislature was only a setback."It's the same at pretty much every state," said Gregory Roselli, an analyst for UBS Securities, at the annual Florida Gaming Summit at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. "It takes a few years, but the bill gets further and further along until it passes."Roselli, who follows the gambling industry, cited Massachusetts and Ohio as states that took years to get casinos. Even some officials at South Florida's pari-mutuels agree that a destination casinos law is inevitable."I think everybody in this room knows it's just a matter of time before it passes," Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino President Tim Ritvo said. "We've drawn up different diagrams, different looks, as we wait to see how the legislation shakes out."Magic City Casino COO Scott Savin agreed that destination casinos will become part of Florida's landscape, but said it will take "five years at the earliest." "They'll get what they want," he added. "They have enough money."
Savin noted that Magic City and other horse tracks, dog tracks and jai-alai frontons are fine with destination casinos, as long as they, too, will be taxed no more than 10 percent on slots and will be allowed to offer the same games."I don't think [passing a casinos bill is] an easy road, but I don't think it's impossible," said Andy Abboud, vice president for Las Vegas Sands Corp., which wants to build a convention center with a casino here.Fewer mistakesAnalyst John Kempf of RBC Capital Markets said bill proponents, such as Genting Malaysia Berhad, will make fewer mistakes next year. Genting rolled out glitzy renderings and spent $500 million for property along Miami's shoreline."You have to get people comfortable with it," he said. "You can't just have Genting saying, 'Things will be this way.' "Roselli added: "They pushed a little too hard."
Genting representatives didn't attend the summit, but general counsel Jessica Hoppe said she was encouraged that the legislation cleared a Senate committee. "Multiple public opinion polls also show that the more Floridians learn about destination resorts, the more likely they are to support bringing these developments to Florida," Hoppe said.But the opposition will remain steadfast, said John Sowinski, president of No Casinos."They certainly won't give up, and we certainly must remain vigilant, but no matter how much lipstick they try to put on their pig, it is still a big, smelly pig," he said. "Florida is different than most states that they have beaten into submission. We are a world leader in family-friendly tourism, and people know we would kill the goose that lays the golden egg if we legalized mega-casinos."Legislative challengesAlso, people underestimate the amount of legislative compromise that's required, said former representative Bill Galvano, who engineered the largest piece of gambling legislation in 2010, which brought the state $1 billion in revenue from the Seminole Tribe of Florida and lowered the slot tax on pari-mutuels. He notes that infighting plagues the pari-mutuel industry, pointing to a lawsuit filed by three casinos in Miami-Dade County that are trying to block a state law that added Hialeah."I've never encountered an industry so interested in what the other guy doesn't get, as opposed to getting what they want," said Galvano, who is running for the Florida Senate.Chad Beynon, an analyst with Macquarie Capital, says the better the economy, the less the chances of a casino bill's passage."If we're back down to 9 percent unemployment, and the economy improves, it becomes that much more difficult to slip through," he said.The Florida Supreme Court has yet to determine whether it will hear an appeal to overturn the ruling that allowed Hialeah slots. That ruling stated that the Legislature has the power to make decisions regarding gambling expansion. Abboud noted that without that ruling, Sands and other companies would not have a means to be approved.Panelists also noted that the battle for gambling in Florida extends back decades. In 1986, voters approved the lottery, but not a measure to allow casinos. In 2004, only 50.8 percent of state voters backed referendums in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, and in 2005, Miami-Dade voters then turned around and shot down that county referendum.nsortal@tribune.com, 954-356-4725.
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