Florida Supreme Court to decide if tracks win jackpot

TALLAHASSEE - The future of gambling in the nation’s third-largest state is now in the hands of the Florida Supreme Court, which was asked Tuesday to decide whether slot machines can be added to dog and horse tracks across the state.

The court held a nearly hour-long hearing over whether a track located 25 miles west of Tallahassee should be allowed to add the machines since voters in small rural county that is home to the track approved a referendum authorizing them.

Justices, who did not immediately rule, must decide whether or not the Republican-controlled Legislature made a change to state law in 2009 that shifted control over slot machines to counties or if this is a flawed misreading of state law.

The final ruling have a wide effect because voters in Lee, Brevard and Palm Beach counties as well as the north Florida counties of Hamilton and Washington have approved similar referendums. Slot machines are currently limited to south Florida tracks and casinos run by the Seminole tribe.

Several of the justices appeared skeptical of arguments from both sides of the dispute, with one justice at one point saying “this whole thing makes no sense” as lawyers for the track and the state quibbled over grammar and sentence construction.

Marc Dunbar, an attorney with the Jones Walker law firm representing the track owners in Gretna, argued that the way that legislators changed the law cleared the way for local counties to consider allowing slot machines.

“You apply the words and their logical consequence is that Gadsden County had a referendum and entitled Gretna Racing for slot machines,” Dunbar told the court.

But Jonathan Williams, deputy solicitor general, said that legislators never intended to allow slot machines in the rest of the state, especially since it would have jeopardized potential payments from the Seminole Tribe of Florida who have exclusive rights outside of South Florida.

Former State Sen. Dan Gelber, an attorney who attended the hearing on behalf of former Gov. Bob Graham, called Dunbar’s argument “pretty absurd” and said many legislators were opposed to adding slot machines.

Graham filed his own legal brief that argues that the Legislature has no authority to authorize slot machines without voter approval. A couple of justices touched on this question during the hearing.

“If you look across the state right now gambling is increasing, it is expanding without any kind of true voter approval of it,” Gelber said after the hearing. “This is not what the people of Florida wanted.”

Creek Entertainment Gretna opened the track in December 2011. The facility offers flat track horse racing as well as poker rooms and betting on races held at other tracks.

State regulators had turned down the slot machine request because of a legal opinion by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who maintained that slot machines were only allowed at tracks in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment that authorized slot machines in those two counties.