Florida Supreme Court Sets Arguments In Slots Case

April 1, 2016

The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments June 7 in a case involving a Gadsden County horse track that could have widespread implications for pari-mutuels throughout the state.

The court will decide whether Gretna Racing, a tiny horse track with a card room west of Tallahassee operated by the Poarch Creek Indians of Atmore, should be allowed to have slot machines without the express permission of the Legislature.

The court accepted jurisdiction in the case after a split appellate court ruled in October that the track cannot have slot machines without the authorization of the Legislature, even though voters in the county approved slots in a referendum. The 1st District Court of Appeal sided with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott’s administration and also asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue of whether pari-mutuels can have slot machines if local voters approve, or if the games require the express say-so of the Legislature.

A ruling in the Gretna case could affect five other counties — Brevard, Hamilton, Lee, Palm Beach and Washington — where voters have also approved referendums authorizing slots at local pari-mutuels.

The Gretna case hinges on a semantic analysis of a 2009 law establishing eligibility for slot machines at pari-mutuels. The 2009 law, which went into effect the following year, was an expansion of a 2004 voter-approved constitutional amendment that authorized slot machines at seven existing horse and dog tracks and jai-alai frontons in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The 2009 change allowed a Hialeah track, which wasn’t operating at the time the amendment was approved, to also operate the lucrative slots. The law in question consists of three clauses, including one that deals with counties outside of Broward and Miami-Dade.

State regulators denied the Gretna track a slots license, arguing the Department of Business and Professional Regulation was “not authorized to issue a slot machine license to a pari-mutuel facility in a county which … holds a countywide referendum to approve such machines, absent a statutory or constitutional provision enacted after July 1, 2010, authorizing such a referendum.”

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News