State rejects slots at airport
By Michel Vasquez
mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com
© 2009 Miami Herald
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Dealing a perhaps-fatal blow to Miami International Airport's controversial push to install slot machines, state regulators on Friday rejected Miami-Dade County's application for a parimutuel license -- citing a variety of reasons that included the county's failure to qualify as a ``person'' under state licensing laws.
``All requirements must be met in order to be issued a permit, and in this case, three requirements were not met,'' said Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation spokeswoman Jenn Meale.
The state also faulted the county for not demonstrating it would set up its gambling operation within one year after being permitted and for not proving the entire location was available for use as a parimutuel operation.
County leaders had hoped to obtain a quarter horse racing permit that would entitle the cash-strapped airport to add slot machines beyond its security checkpoints. The mandatory horse races -- required to keep the slots license alive -- would likely have been held off-site at another local track, such as Calder Race Course or Hialeah Park.
Still, the county had to prove it could hold horse races somewhere at the airport if need be -- and the state came away unpersuaded.
MIA's annual operating cost, including debt service, has reached $600 million, and will skyrocket to $1.1 billion by 2015 because of debt associated with airport construction and rising operating costs.
As part of a wide-ranging strategy to find new sources of airport revenue, the county hoped to reap as much as $17 million a year from bored or delayed travelers playing the slots.
`OUT-OF-THE-BOX'
``I supported it because I thought it was out-of-the-box thinking by the airport,'' County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez said.
Though an appeal process exists for the county to fight the state's rejection, Gimenez was reluctant to pursue a long, protracted fight. The commission as a whole will have to make that decision in the coming months.
``The state is against it. . .so be it as far as I'm concerned,'' Gimenez said.
Tallahassee attorney and gaming lobbyist Marc Dunbar -- hired by the county as an expert consultant and the person who coordinated the airport's application -- was highly critical of the state's action.
``Something other than parimutuel law and past agency practices appear to have motivated this decision,'' Dunbar said in a statement. ``There is a level of arbitrariness and inconsistency in the handling of this application.''
In recent months, Dunbar had aggressively challenged the notion that the county couldn't hold a gaming license because it wasn't a ``person.'' An August Florida attorney general's memorandum appeared to bolster the county's case as it found governments would ``likely'' qualify to hold gaming licenses.
Earlier this month, however, the attorney general's office backtracked somewhat, stating in a letter to state regulators that its previous memorandum was meant merely as legal advice and did not constitute an official legal opinion.
The internal legal staff at the Department of Business & Professional Regulation then determined that the county, because it was not a person, was ineligible to apply for a gaming permit.
COMPETITORS
That decision, along with the other reasons cited for rejecting the airport application, were welcome news for some local parimutuels. Two local tracks -- Hialeah Park and Flagler Dog Track/Magic City Casino -- had formally objected to the airport getting into the slots business.
The fears of those parimutuels essentially boiled down to one word: competition. Flagler recently opened its own $54 million slots parlor, located less than a mile and a half from the airport.
Flagler Vice President Isadore Havenick criticized the airport's slots idea as half-baked from the start.
``The county was sold a bill of goods,'' Havenick said.
``And while we feel sorry for them in not getting this, we look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.''