Disney is funding a petition for the Florida Voter Control of Gambling amendment. If the petition collects 766,200 signatures, a voter control of gambling referendum would be placed on the 2018 midterm ballot.
The Florida State Legislature has considered several proposals for the expansion of gambling in the state over the past few years, but a hard core of Floridians believe the voters should decide the issue.
For the past few months, the Disney Company has poured money into “Voters in Charge”, an anti-gambling political action committee. Voters In Charge is collecting signatures for the petition, which would place decision making for expanded casino gambling in the hands of voters — not the legislature. The petitions says it would give citizens and not “legislators or clever lawyers” the right to change Florida’s gambling laws.
Disney Wants Family-Friendly Entertainment
Roughly twenty million tourists visit Disneyworld in Orlando every year, which also is the headquarters for the global corporation. Disney wants Florida to be a “family friendly” tourism destination and believes the promotion of casino gambling is bad for the state’s image.
Florida is a state split regionally between much different demographics. The Florida Panhandle and the northern half o f the state is much like any other southern US states, with a high percentage of conservative voters.
Southern Florida has a constant influx of retirees from the American northeast, where voters tend to be more liberal. With such a divided state north-and-south, the central corridor running from Tampa-to-Orlando, as well as the large Cuban-American population in Miami, determines statewide elections.
100,000 to 400,000 Signatures Collected
The Florida Division of Elections said, according to its records, the petition’s signature total has surpassed 100,000. FloridaPolitics.com reports that the petition’s organizers have collected 300,000 more signatures, which have not been certified yet.
John Sowinski, a spokesman for “Voters in Charge”, said that the signature collection effort continues apace. Sowinski said, “Tens of thousands of Floridians are signing the blue petition each week to ensure that voters, not politicians, have the exclusive authority to make gambling decisions in our state. We look forward to reaching our goal of 766,200 valid petitions well ahead of the deadline and being on the 2018 General Election ballot.”
“Voters In Charge” and “No Casinos”
Sowinski also heads “No Casinos”, a group which funded a similar anti-gambling movement in 2015. At the time, “No Casinos” paid $195,000 to fund a referendum effort to take gambling decisions out of the hands of the legislature.
“Voters in Charge” began a new round of fundraising in March 2017. Since that time, $688,000 has been raised for the current ballot initiative. Of the cash raised, Disney contributed $650,000.
Florida Supreme Court on Gambling Ballot Initiative
The current ballot initiative began in April 2017 after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that it was legal to hold a referendum on voter control of gambling. Two Florida justices, R. Fred Lewis and Ricky Polston, wrote a dissenting opinion stating their opposition to the decision.
Justice Lewis and Justice Polston wrote, in their opinion, that “the ballot title and summary do not clearly inform the public that the proposed amendment may substantially affect slot machines approved by county-wide [referendums].”
Supreme Court on County-Level Slots Approval
That opinion almost immediately was nullified. In May 2017, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that county-level votes to add slots parlors to racetracks had no legal standing, because no law gives counties the legal right to approve casino gambling.
In the subsequent case, the majority opinion stated, “In the absence of such a specific authorization, a county cannot initiate a referendum that will authorize the Division to issue a license any more than the county could itself issue a slot machine gaming license.”
The current voter control initiative appears to be a response to rumors that the Florida State Legislature might approve a billion-dollar integrated casino and destination resort to Southern Florida. For years, the gaming media discussed the possibility that Florida’s politicians would approve two South Florida casinos. Las Vegas Sands Corp and Genting Group were the two casino companies most often associated with those rumored casino-resorts.
South Florida Casino?
At one point, Genting even bought the old Miami Herald building and property, on which they hoped to build a world class casinos. Genting currently is building the most-expensive casino ever built in Las Vegas: Resorts World Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Sands’ Sheldon Adelson spent millions of dollars lobbying Florida politicians to approve such a measure. Eventually, Adelson gave up the lobbying effort, choosing instead to spend the resources on a lobbying effort for Georgia land-based casinos.
Meanwhile, the Disney Company has spent several million dollars a year lobbying Florida’s legislature to keep integrated resort-casinos out of the Miami area. Earlier this year, the City of Miami Beach approved a measure that would ban casinos from their city.
