Gold City Casino Online. Casinos Card Playing Rooms. Port St Lucie Area.
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Even if voters here say they want to allow slot machines at Fort Pierce Jai-Alai & Poker, don't expect to hear the clanging chimes and see flashing lights any time soon.
The county is considering the jai alai club's request to place a referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot. But passing the referendum is just the first step. The Legislature would then need to change state law that now permits slots only in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and Native American lands. Dog- and horse-racing tracks and jai alai frontons can offer poker.
Owners of Fort Pierce Jai-Alai & Poker say adding slot machines would help bolster the economy and provide other entertainment options.
The commission is to decide June 21 whether to place the issue on the ballot.
In 2012 voters in Brevard and Palm Beach counties passed similar referendums, saying they wanted slot machines at pari-mutuels. Gadsden, Lee, Hamilton and Washington counties also passed similar referendums.
None has yet gotten slot machines.
The Legislature in March rejected Gov. Rick Scott's proposal to give the Seminole Tribe of Florida exclusive rights to operate blackjack and add craps and roulette tables in its casinos for 20 years, in exchange for paying the state $3 billion over seven years.
The deal also would have allowed the Legislature to permit new slot machines at the Palm Beach Kennel Club and an unknown number of South Florida pari-mutuel facilities, and it would have allowed 'racinos' — racetracks that already have casinos — to seek voter approval to operate limited blackjack.
'It's good that a county has the referendum,'said Jim O'Brien, CEO of Melbourne Greyhound Park LLC and Club 52. 'I think it sends a strong message to state legislators about what their constituents want.'
The referendum is about preparing for the future, said Fort Pierce Jai-Alai CEO David Jonas.
'What the referendum does is gives us a seat at the table,' Jonas said. 'If there wasn't a referendum there would be no chance.'
Neither state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, nor state Rep. Larry Lee Jr., D-Port St. Lucie, returned Treasure Coast Newspapers' calls seeking comment on expansion of slot-machine gambling to St. Lucie County and if they would vote to allow it.
Though the Seminole deal fell through, O'Brien and Jonas said they are encourage by a case currently before the Florida Supreme Court. In Gretna Racing LLC v. Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the horse-track owner claims changes to the state law in 2010, intended to allow slots at dog and horse tracks statewide if a county passed a referendum, show voters want it. Gretna Racing is a small horse track operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Gadsden County, west of Tallahassee.
The state changed the law to allow Hialeah Park racetrack in Miami-Dade County to get a slots license. The course was not operating as a pari-mutuel in 2003 when voters approved a statewide constitutional amendment allowing slots.
Va Office Port St Lucie
The Supreme Court heard opening arguments in the case on Tuesday.
City Of Port Saint Lucie Florida
Use #TCPalmFuture on Twitter to share your tweets!