Pari-mutuels go to bat for slot machines

Pari-mutuel facilities in Palm Beach, Lee and Brevard counties filed a brief Thursday urging the Florida Supreme Court to uphold a referendum that would allow slot machines at a race track in Gadsden County.

The Gadsden track, Gretna Racing, is challenging a 1st District Court of Appeal ruling in October that said legislative approval is needed before slot machines could be offered at the facility. Gadsden County voters in 2012 approved a referendum aimed at allowing slots.

The outcome of the Supreme Court case likely will have broader implications because voters in Palm Beach, Lee, Brevard, Hamilton and Washington counties also have approved slots referendums.

The Palm Beach Kennel Club in November 2014 was denied a slots license by the state Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering and has challenged that denial in a case pending at the 4th District Court of Appeal. Operators of the Palm Beach track, Melbourne Greyhound Park and Naples Fort Myers Greyhound Racing and Poker in Bonita Springs filed the friend-of-the-court brief Thursday.

The Supreme Court case focuses heavily on disputed interpretations of a 2009 gambling law, with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott’s administration arguing that legislative approval is need for the slot machines.

The brief filed Thursday, however, asks the court to find that Gadsden County’s referendum was valid “and, in turn, Gretna Racing, LLC properly submitted its application for a license to conduct slot machine operations at its facility.”