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Economists Debate Gambling Proposal

May 18th, 2016 by flanews

A proposed constitutional amendment on gambling for 2018 ( two years away) has some state economists and opponents scratching their heads already. Matt Galka has more.

More casinos? Less Casinos? What about slots…and more table games? They’re all recurring questions that Florida faces…and the clarity is lacking right now.

 

A proposed constitutional amendment for 2018 wants to put all of those decisions into Florida voters hands.

“We think that voters in Florida, whether they support more gambling or not, really want is to have the voters put in charge of this question,” said John Sowinski with Voters in Charge.

State economists held their third workshop on the amendment and are still a little confused about how it could impact state revenues.  If the amendment passes – it could knock out some already authorized gaming.

The amendment’s backers say the proposal was written to discourage the legislature from any major expansion before 2018.

But opponents say it ties local voters hands.

The amendment would require voters to approve any gaming decision…meaning someone in North Florida could be voting No on something that South Florida Residents want and vice versa.

“These types of decisions are left to the legislature and to the local governments to decide what is right for certain communities, a lot of self determination. So that someone in the panhandle doesn’t impact the decision making authority of someone down in Broward County,” said gaming attorney Marc Dunbar.

Economists say it’s tough to nail down the financial impact of the amendment because of all the uncertainty…and something that could very well be decided by the courts.

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