Florida gaming regulators have issued their first response to Miami International Airport's controversial bid for slot machines, with the state requesting additional information from MIA — while questioning the legality of its slots application.
"We believe that a governmental entity may not be eligible to apply," the state's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering wrote to MIA this week. Division Licensing Administrator E.J. Barnes wrote that the airport, which is operated by Miami-Dade County, may not qualify for a parimutuel gaming permit because such permits are limits to "persons'' under state law.
MIA officials, desperate to plug massive operational deficits, hope to secure a quarter-horse racing permit that would allow the installation of slot machines beyond the airport's security checkpoints. The permit, while potentially granting the county the right to slots, also requires the regular running of quarter-horse races, which the county would likely stage at an existing track such as Calder or Gulfstream.
Marc Dunbar, a gaming industry lobbyist who is handling the county's slots application, said he is "very optimistic'' it will succeed — despite the legal questions being raised by state regulators.
Dunbar said he will point those state regulators to a decades-old Florida Attorney General opinion that says governments can operate gambling establishments. The 1976 opinion was issued when the city of Hialeah was considering taking over the historic Hialeah Park horse track, Dunbar said.
"If the city of Hialeah could own one, the county certainly could," Dunbar said.
As far as the additional documentation requested by the state — some of which state regulators wrote should have been in the original application but wasn't — Dunbar said those materials would be provided in the coming days.
Dunbar disputed that notion that the airport had submitted an incomplete application, saying that the state's parimutuel division usually has several staff members review applications, and that some of MIA's backup materials may have been misplaced as the application was shuffled between division employees.
The state's lukewarm response so far is typical of gambling permit applications. A spokeswoman for the state's parimutuel division confirmed that the number of problems identified in MIA's application is "comparable'' to other applicants.
Assuming Miami-Dade County can fill all of those initial holes in its application, state regulators would then begin a 90-day evaluation process.
– Mike Vasquez
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