Column: Hypocrisy on Seminole gaming in Florida

Wednesday, April 15, 2009  

"Charlie Crist had this one right. The idea is to allow the Seminoles to set up card games and Vegas-style slots in their existing casinos in exchange for as much as $400million a year to plug our ailing budget.

Those who try to portray this deal as a major expansion of gambling are as deluded as the roulette player who's sure he has a winning "system."

Right now, the Seminoles operate more than 3,300 machines at their expansive Hard Rock resort in Tampa. You can see a similar sea of slots at the Hard Rock in South Florida. The gamblers are already there. So it's hard to see how anyone can honestly argue that 100 more table games would change the face of gambling in the Sunshine State.

People are already betting $25 a hand on video versions of cards. But we have lawmakers trying to stop them from betting $10 on real ones.

And please, dear lawmakers, don't give me any moralistic malarkey about gaming being evil — not as long as you're using the Lottery to balance your budget and free up money to renovate your members-only dining room and provide your complimentary health care.

The hypocrisy of these alleged family-values yahoos decrying casinos — while running a state that actually takes out ads urging Floridians to spend $30 on a single scratch-off ticket — is staggering."

Get the Story:
Scott Maxwel: Florida legislators are gambling you'll ignore their hypocrisy (The Orlando Sentinel 4/15)

Another Opinion:
Editorial: State budget gamble (The Bradenton Herald 4/15)