While decoupling hangs in the balance, the general consensus around Florida’s Capitol is that gambling expansion in Florida could depend on whether the Florida Supreme Court @FLCourts rules that pari-mutuel permitholders like Hamilton Downs and Gretna Racing LLC outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties can have slot machines without legislative authorization.
But Sunshine State News Publisher Nancy Smith conjectured that would be ” . . . like Wall Street saying, ‘We can’t reverse the downward trend of the Dow until we get Bernie Madoff back.'”
She revealed in her column the strange case of North Florida’s “Hamilton Downs,” a court hearing on which is scheduled for March 7-9.
Given that the State of Florida said in its 2014 complaint that Hamilton’s “flag drop” events ” . . . do not qualify as horse races,” Smith explained that this raises the question of why the exact same events at nearby Gretna Racing LLC were not also singled out.
Thus, Smith said, the anticipated could be ” . . . as meaningless as a campaign promise blowing in the wind.”
Read her game-changing “I Beg To Differ” column HERE.
Read the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering’s complaint against Hamilton Downs HERE.
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