Florida House of Representatives Kills Bad Slots Bill

Tallahassee Florida: As the Florida Legislature adjourned at 11:50 pm on Friday May 5, the 60th day of the Legislative Sessions, the hope to put Slot Machines in the Hollywood Florida Greyhound Track Died in the Florida House of Representative.

Greyhound Men and Women supported a State Wide Referendum in November of 2004 that would have authorized Slot Machines in existing Pari-mutuels facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward County, Florida that had conducted live pari-mutuels racing during each of the last two years.

They again supported a second referendum March 8th in Miami-Dade and Broward County to authorize Slots in the Pari-mutuel facilities all on the promise of the Hollywood Greyhound Track Management that they were going talk and work together for betterment of the Greyhound Industry.

We attempted to work with the Management of the Hollywood Greyhound Track thru the first half of the Legislative Session. However, this all came to an end when The Track Management testified before the House Business Regulation Committee, on Thursday March 31, that they had "never promised purse enhancement".

We then presented to the committee a copy of a study by The Innovation Group that the Track had presented to committee a few weeks earlier in which they had promised in writing "Purse enhancement will support agriculture, breeding, and related industries statewide".

The House Leadership never forgot this misrepresentation of the facts by the Track Management.

The Track then began working with the radical Animal Rights group Grey2K to reduce live racing dates and to require reporting ever time you moved a Greyhound from track to track.

The Track spent so much time and energy fighting purses and working with Grey2K that they lost ground on Taxes and the type of Machines. Had we all been working together we might have been able to help on these issues.

The ill will created by the Track this year will be hard to overcome, but we all must work together for the betterment of the sport of Greyhound Racing. As the Track prepares for a law suit we need to prepare for our continued grass roots education of Members of the Legislature on the importance of purse enhancement and protecting live racing.

Jack Cory
Public Affairs Consultants
110 E College Ave.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Office: 850-681-1065
Mobile: 850-566-9175
Fax: 850-561-1389
Email: Jack Cory

Florida Slots News Clips
2005 Legislative Session




Breeders Want Share of Slot Machine Profits

They want some of the money to be used to boost purses in horse, greyhound races.

By Jackie Hallifax
The Associated Press
Copyright © 2005 - Lakeland Ledger
Monday, May 2, 2005

TALLAHASSEE -- With some of the top contenders in this week's Kentucky Derby, Florida's thoroughbred industry may have something to celebrate -- but in the Capitol it seems to be losing the fight for money that would be generated from slot machines in Broward County.

And the industry says it needs that money.

"Wouldn't that be ironic? We win the Derby and we lose the thoroughbred industry," said Richard Hancock, executive vice president of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association.

The pari-mutuel industry spent millions to promote the constitutional amendment giving people in Broward and Miami-Dade counties the right to put slot machines in their race tracks and jai-alai frontons, which only Broward County ultimately approved. It was pitched as a way to raise money for schools across the state.

Now breeders and owners of race horses and greyhounds want lawmakers to guarantee in law that they will get some of the money that isn't spent on education -- pitting them against track owners, who would otherwise receive the money.

The breeders thought some of the slot machine profits would also be used to boost purses and breeder incentives for the winners. That's what has happened in "racinos" -- race tracks that have installed slot machines -- in states like West Virginia and Delaware.

"Everyone thought they would have a little bit of a win-win," said Sen. Dennis Jones, chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee.

An even bigger disagreement over how to tax slots and what k ind of machines to allow looms between the Senate and House. With just days left in the two-month session, the outlook that any bill regulating slot machines will pass is itself in doubt. Senate President Tom Lee, RBrandon, last week said he thought chances were less than 50 percent.

But there is one thing the bills pending in both chambers have in common: Neither deals with purses or breeder incentives.

"I think it will have to wait til next year," said Jones, RSeminole. Supporters say Florida's thoroughbred industry is worth fighting for.

Several hundred horse farms covering about 60,000 acres in Marion County make it a significant -- and beautiful -- agricultural area. The farms, training centers, equipment and horses add up to an investment of about $3 billion and nearly 10,000 jobs.

The state's greyhound breeders and kennel operators also want a purse provision in the slots bill.

"A bill passed without purses would be devastating," said Jack Cory, a lobbyist for dog owners and breeders. "So if we don't have a bill with purses, we would rather have no bill."

The slot machines were limited to pari-mutuels because they were intended to help the businesses, Cory said, adding that the greyhound industry has about $75 million in land, equipment and animals in Florida.

Meanwhile, dog track owners oppose any purse provision in the bill.

The problem, Cory alleged, is a simple matter of greed: The dog tracks don't want to share the profits.

Cory, Hancock and others say that there was an agreement within the parimutuel industry last year that some of the money would be earmarked for purses.

"When we got behind the campaign it was with the understanding that there would be a fair split," Hancock said.

The South Florida dog-track executive who spearheaded the petition drive has a different explanation for tracks' opposition to a purse provision. The public was only promised money for schools, said Daniel Adkins with Hollywood Greyhound Track.

"We never once said a word about saving the industry," Adkins said, adding that putting money for bigger purses and breeder's incentives in the law itself would create political and legal problems.

"Any revenue that goes to purses or breeders should be a private contractual agreement with the tracks," he said, adding he planned to share 5.75 percent of his net revenue with his dog owners and kennel operators.



Fragile progress made in gambling
The state House and Senate continued their ideological tug of war over how far to go to tax slot machines and limit their operations in Broward.

By Mary Ellen Klas
meklas@herald.com
Copyright © 2005, Miami Herald
Saturday, April 23, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - A nervous hush came over a room full of gaming industry lobbyists Friday as a Senate committee did the unexpected when it took up the slots-machine bill: It voted to bar Broward's four parimutuels from remaining inthe horse race, dog race or jai alai business if they to choose to offer slot machines.

The amendment by Sen. Dan Webster, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was condemned by parimutuel lobbyists as ''devastating'' to their efforts to resuscitate their ailing businesses by adding slot machines to their gambling menus. To Webster it was a simple question of choice.

But the industry worries were short-lived: After watching the faces of the powerful industry hired guns turn ashen at the 5-3 vote, the senator who cast the pivotal vote reversed himself, killing the amendment on a tie vote.

The industry deflected several other unfriendly amendments, and the bill left the committee virtually unscathed.

In the House, the story was different. The Fiscal Council approved a bill that imposed a 55-percent tax rate on slot machine revenues, one of the highest in the nation, and stripped away a provision that would allow parimutuels to upgrade their slot machines from bingo-style to the higherstakes Las Vegas style if the Indian casinos start offering them.

It was another day of fragile progress for the gambling industry, as lawmakers attempt to regulate slot machines in Broward County by a July deadline.

Legislators must balance their ideological objections to expanding gambling with their practical desire to capture tax revenues from the games.

''People are for gambling and it's been shown by this Legislature, they're for expanding gambling,'' Webster said, clearly frustrated that his efforts to restrict the industry didn't work.

Sen. Bill Posey, a Rockledge Republican, was the swing vote on the Senate committee. He said he reversed himself because the proposal was drafted poorly and could force the industry to forever surrender its parimutuel licenses if they switch to slot machines, rather than allow them to one day change their minds.

While the Senate is perceived to be more friendly to the slots industry than the House, Posey did succeed in persuading the committee to ban ATM machines from all slot facilities.

In the House, leaders had completely rewritten their slots bill, making it farther apart from the Senate on many key elements, such as the tax rate.

The House's 55-percent tax rate is supported by Gov. Jeb Bush but is much higher than the tiered tax rate of 30-35 percent in the Senate.

Rep. Frank Attkisson, a Kissimmee Republican who is sponsoring the House bill, defended the rate as not only reasonable but ample enough for the industry to earn an estimated $80 million a year after taxes.

''Are they going to turn down $70 million to $80 million a year?'' Attkisson asked. ``I don't think so. I think they'll be racing to the bank.''

The sponsor of the Senate bill, Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, warned that too high a tax rate will diminish the ability of the industry to reinvest in its business, reduce its profits and shrink the amount the state collects.

Webster said, however, that while he is resigned to the fact that slots are here to stay, he thinks the Senate's tax rate is too low. He has proposed an amendment to adopt a tax rate of 40-50 percent, depending upon the amount of money a parimutuel brings in. He thinks the full Senate will accept it.

The House bill eliminates a proposal to give the city of Hollywood $1,500 per machine to offset the impact of the industry on its community. A similar measure was defeated Friday in the Senate.

But both House and Senate committees agreed to add a provision that gives the Broward School District $500 per machine if it can prove to the state Board of Education that the emergence of slot machines has had an adverse impact on the school system. The House and Senate bills also include a provision that would require the greyhound tracks to report dog injuries and fatalities and remove a provision that requires dog tracks to operate a race schedule of 350 days a year, allowing the Hollywood Greyhound Track to reduce its racing schedule and still operate slots year round.

That prompted Jack Cory, a lobbyist for the state's greyhound owners, breeders and kennel operators, to blast the track owners as conducting a bait-and-switch to voters.

''They were part of the track's shell game. They want to get out of greyhound racing and into casinos,'' he said.



House plan would tax slot machines at 55 percent
By Jackie Hallifax
Associated Press
Saturday, April 23, 2005

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The proposed tax rate for slot machines in Broward County jumped Friday to 55 percent as the House bill moved through its last committee.

"We are responsible for not leaving a dime on the table," Rep. Frank Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, told the House Fiscal Council before its unanimous vote.

Any tax revenue collected from slots is earmarked for schools around the state. That was a part of the proposed constitutional amendment that voters approved in November allowing slot machines in seven race tracks and jai-alai frontons in Broward and Miami-Dade counties with local approval. Only Broward County decided to allow the machines.

A competing Senate proposal, meanwhile, earmarked the taxes from slot machines specifically for school construction and maintenance under an amendment approved Friday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. That proposal set the tax rate between 30 percent and 35 percent.

Sen. Daniel Webster, a gambling opponent, tried to force the Broward County pari-mutuels to choose between having slots or their original businesses of horse racing, dog racing and jai-alai. But the panel rejected his proposal.

Webster, committee chairman, also proposed a higher tax rate but decided to delay a vote on the idea. The committee voted 7-1 for the legislation, with Webster, R-Winter Garden, casting the dissenting vote.

The pari-mutuel industry supports the Senate legislation and opposes to the House bill, saying the 55 percent tax rate too high.

Allan Solomon, an executive with Pompano Park harness race track, told lawmakers the bill didn't have "any redeeming features."

A tax rate of 30 percent would allow the industry to invest in attractive entertainment complexes that would generate the most taxes for the state, according to Solomon and Daniel Adkins, the pari-mutuel executive who led the petition drive amend the Florida Constitution to allow slots.

"The tax rate - 55 percent - is not workable," said Adkins, with Hollywood Greyhound Track.

But he said the Senate bill "has a very good business plan."

The pari-mutuel industry has advocated a 30 percent tax rate; the House legislation originally provided for a sliding scale ranging from 35 percent to 45 percent, depending on how many machines a facility installs.

Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, said 55 percent was reasonable and prudent and predicted it would give the four pari-mutuels a profit of at least $70 million.

"Are they going to turn down $70 million or $480 million a year under this proposal?" Attkisson asked. "I don't think so. I think they're going to be racing to the bank."

The tax rate in the Senate bill (CS-SB 1174) would tax slots on a scale ranging from 30 percent on revenue under $100 million, 32.5 percent on revenue between $100 million and $200 million and 35 percent above $200 million.

Both the House and the Senate committees also approved amendments that would require record-keeping of dog injuries and fatalities in the greyhound industry.

Jack Cory, a lobbyist for the state's greyhound owners, breeders and kennel operators, blasted the idea as an attack on the industry.


But Rep. Holly Benson, the Pensacola Republican who sponsored the amendment, said it was just to get accurate data. "This is a puppy-lover's amendment," she said.