The First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, Florida overruled state regulators and said a loophole in state law would require West Flagler Associates, parent company of Magic City Casino, to obtain a summer jai alai permit then operate a single jai alai game, in order to be eligible for a poker room. After two years, Magic City could become eligible for a slot machine license in Miami Dade County.
Isadore Havenick, West Flagler owner and vice president, said if the Department of Business and Professional Regulation grants the summer jai alai permit, as expected, West Flagler will buy a property it has an option on in Florida City near Homestead, and build a poker room and jai alai fronton.
Florida’s 30-year old parimutuel law allows a summer permit to be granted to the lowest-performing parimutuel in a county. Hialeah Park had the lowest racing handle of the county’s parimutuels in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, but declined the option for the permit. As a result, West Flagler became eligible. When West Flagler applied for a second permit in 2012, the business and professional regulation department ruled the company only could receive one permit every two years. West Flagler sued and said the same rule should apply in 2012. The appeals court upheld that argument in a 3-0 ruling.
The court stated it’s up to the legislature to close loopholes in a law. In the session that ended May 2 legislators discussed ways to do that and update the state’s gaming laws, but after spending $400,000 on a special study, few changes were accomplished.
Also in Florida, Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach and Churchill Downs’ Calder Casino & Race Course in Miami Gardens reportedly are close to reaching a deal that would reduce Calder’s racing dates to 40 days in the fall, while Gulfstream would operate without direct competition the rest of the year. The deal would require approval of the state Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering.
For nearly 30 years, the two tracks had an informal agreement that they would not run live racing at the same time. Gulfstream Park had run live racing from January to March, and Calder ran live racing from April to December. But since last year, the two racetracks have been directly competing, after Gulfstream began running head to head with Calder in the April to December timeframe and Calder, which historically did not run live racing, went live in the same time frame as Gulfstream.
Analysts said an agreement would be beneficial for both operations.
