Editorial

It’s a sickening sight.

Watching South Florida politicians scrambling to get in on the loot they believe will come with the introduction of slot machines at pari-mutuel facilities is enough to turn your stomach. These public servants have betrayed their obligation to serve the best interests of their communities by their frenetic dash to the “winner’s circle” to claim their share of the slots prize – a projected $10 million annual windfall.

Last week, Broward and Miami-Dade county commissions approved agreements with the gambling industry and in exchange for their take of the prize have put referendums on the March 8 ballot seeking approval of placing slot machines at seven pari-mutuel facilities in the South Florida counties. (For more on the counties actions, see our news coverage this week, beginning on page one.)

All of this activity has occurred in spite of the fact that the Florida Legislature has yet to decide how to implement Amendment 4 and will not do so before Broward and Miami-Dade voters go the polls since the legislative session begins the very same day as the referendums are considered by voters. While the South Florida counties are counting on thousands of slot machines at their pari-mutuel facilities – turning the operations into mini-casinos, “racinos,” as industry insiders call them – it’s impossible to know just what the Legislature will permit as it enacts implementing legislation for Amendment 4.

Something for nothing – the lie of the gambling culture – has lured these county officials, just as it did Florida voters in November who narrowly approved Amendment 4 permitting Broward and Miami-Dade to hold the slots referendums. Voters bought the lie that slots are the panacea for state education programs, believing the industry’s claim that the estimated $1 billion of slot revenues will generate up to $500 million in tax dollars for schools without any cost to human lives and our society.

The state’s financial impact statement, issued in connection with Amendment 4, makes clear expanded gambling in Florida has a price. In addition to increased costs to state and local governments for administrating the slot machine revenues, “A second and perhaps more significant cost will be that related to an expected increase in problem gambling. With an increase in the overall level of gambling activity, the level of problem gambling will increase also. This will lead to a need for increased expenditures by state and local governments in several areas, including law enforcement (including impacts on the courts and jails/prisons), mental health and addiction treatment costs, and unemployment compensation costs, among others.”

It’s no wonder that Florida’s law enforcement leaders were united in their opposition to Amendment 4.

“Casino Gambling: A ‘No Win’ for Florida,” a Florida Department of Law Enforcement study – available on the No Casinos Web site (www.nocasinosfl.com) – outlines the dangers of increased crime, social costs and the false hope of economic development that come with increased gambling.

Approval of the March 8 referendums may seem to be a forgone conclusion. Although Amendment 4 was rejected soundly in most counties across the state, large margins of support in South Florida brought victory for the gambling industry in November and would seem to make approval in March inevitable. Nevertheless, concerned citizens – led by Florida Baptists in Broward and Miami-Dade – must stand against this dangerous gambling expansion. For detailed information about the dangers of slot machines, check-out the No Casinos Web site.

Several local leaders, including Broward County Mayor Kristin Jacobs, Fort Lauderdale Mayor James Naugle and Davie Mayor Tom Truex, have publicly opposed the slots referendum. These leaders deserve our praise for their courageous stands and they deserve our diligent assistance in opposing the referendums.

Still, there’s no doubt that defeating the slots referendums will be an uphill battle. Voters in South Florida will be bombarded in the coming weeks with the something-for-nothing message as the gambling industry will spend whatever it takes to win approval of the March 8 referendums. Promising millions of dollars for schools, with no mention of the ills of gambling will be the center-piece of the industry’s propaganda.

Those of us outside South Florida must not stand on the sidelines, watching in despair and believing that we have no role to play. What happens in South Florida will eventually impact the rest of the state. We must all offer a prophetic witness against this evil.

And that’s truly what state-sanctioned gambling is: evil. It is a perverted, truly evil situation when state and local government politicians prey on their own citizens in order to gain more tax revenues. It’s nothing less than predatory when government depends on the failure of its citizens – which is the fate of all gamblers – to pay for public services.

Predatory politicians in South Florida have put the matter before Broward and Miami-Dade voters. Florida Baptists must help our fellow citizens see the danger of expanded gambling in our state and defeat the slots referendums March 8.