On one side is the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the powerful Walt Disney Company, which strenuously advances the family-friendly vacation-postcard image through its theme parks.
On the other side are billions of dollars in resort-casino investment, beckoning to traditionally gambling-averse lawmakers at a time when the state’s economy is in the doldrums and unemployment remains stubbornly high.
The focus of the battle is a bill that, if adopted, would drastically change the profile of the gambling industry here by allowing three lavish $2 billion resort casinos to open in South Florida — Dade and Broward Counties.
And with the promise of tens of thousands of sorely needed jobs and many millions of dollars in tax revenue, Florida politicians are recalibrating their positions.
Showing its muscle, the Genting Corporation, a Malaysian company, this spring paid $236 million in cash for The Miami Herald headquarters, which hugs Biscayne Bay, and bought up neighboring properties to amass 30 acres for one of the casino projects.
The company, which runs an enormous resort casino in Singapore, plans to invest more than $3 billion and is already talking about fixing highways, building parking garages and partnering with nearby restaurants, hotels and the performing arts center. Its plan would create the largest casino in the country.
It was Genting’s considerable investment and detailed plans that resuscitated gambling as a major legislative issue this year, with lawmakers promoting upscale casinos as an economic lifeline. The Las Vegas Sands, the Wynn and others are also vying for contention.
It is not as if legalized gambling is unknown in Florida, but the proposed destination resorts, as they are called, would be a radical departure from most of the existing gambling sites, which include casinos run by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, as well as racinos — slot machines and no-limit poker rooms at racetracks.
Gov. Rick Scott, a conservative Republican who campaigned on the promise of creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, has remained mostly neutral, saying only that he does not want Florida’s economy to over-rely on gambling. Devastated by the collapse of the housing market, Florida has a 10.6 percent unemployment rate and faces $2.6 billion in budget cuts this year.
The casino bill will be taken up in the two-month legislative session that starts in January. Despite the legions of lobbyists for the gambling industry who have swarmed Tallahassee and the state’s appetite for treasure, victory for the casinos is hardly a cinch. That is because the gambling industry faces a daunting opponent: Disney, Florida’s most powerful corporation.
Disney has long decried gambling as counterproductive to Florida’s theme park tourism. Also in Disney’s corner is the Florida Chamber of Commerce, an influential force among state Republicans, which argues that expanding gambling would mar the state’s drive to court other industries. The chamber’s chairman is a Walt Disney World executive. The powerful speaker of the House, Dean Cannon of Orlando, so far has stayed quiet on the project.
“Expanding casino gambling in Florida would never make sense in a good economy,” said Mark A. Wilson, the president and chief executive of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. “And the only reason they are even targeting Florida is that they are hoping that desperate people will reach for desperate measures. There is never a good time to push a bad idea.”
But even Jeb Bush, who vigorously fought the expansion of gambling while he was governor, says it appears casinos might find a home in the state next year, so long as it is in South Florida.
“The north will let the heathens in the south have the casinos, and they’ll take the benefits,” Mr. Bush told The Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board this month.
The two lawmakers who introduced the bill argue that Florida became partners with the gambling industry years ago. The state receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the Seminole Tribe, which runs seven casinos statewide on its reservations, including the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood. The lawmakers want to end the tribe’s monopoly on casinos. Florida also pockets healthy tax revenues from South Florida racinos. At the same time, the state is awash in Internet sweepstakes cafes that critics say double as low-rent, strip-mall gambling operations.
Christine Jordan Sexton contributed reporting from Tallahassee.
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