Casino tools Erik Fresen and Ellyn Bogdanoff want to "control" gaming by opening the door to destination mega-resorts in South Florida.
Good luck with that.
These two lawmakers should have spent a couple of days kicking the tires in Las Vegas, where they would have learned a lot about how casinos control politicians -- not the other way around. They also would have seen, firsthand, unemployment and foreclosure rates even worse than Florida's.
Instead, Fresen-Bogdanoff drank the casino Kool-Aid. Now they're betting that other equally naive/craven legislators will, too.
The big question is: How will Gov. Rick Scott play his hand?
Deputy press secretary Jackie Schutz said, "The governor cannot comment on the pending legislation until he sees a final bill, but he does not want Floridas budget too heavily tied to gaming."
But suggesting he has no aversion to gambling per se, Scott previously indicated that he favored equal tax rates for all gaming ventures.
Scott says he's all about private-sector jobs. So, of course, the Genting Group, Las Vegas Sands and other casino sharpies are promising jobs, jobs, jobs.
The Malaysia-based Genting, which bought the Miami Herald complex to anchor "the world's biggest casino," says it will create 100,000 new positions.
Whether that's a real number is debatable, but one thing is certain: The gaming industry hires mainly low-skill, low-pay workers (that's how Las Vegas became a union town) and sucks off the local economy.
While Floridians can safely take the "under" on private-sector wages, they should bet the "over" on government jobs. Fresen-Bogdanoff's 142-page casino bill is a full-employment act for an entirely new government bureaucracy, complete with gaming-control agents, gaming lawyers and untold legions of paper shufflers. The more "full-service" the resorts, the bigger the government support network.
If the 2012 Legislature approves Fresen-Bogdanoff, expect legal challenges early, says William Thompson, a professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"There are probably going to be lawsuits all around from those [companies] that don't get licensed," he said.
By capping the number of resort licenses in Miami-Dade and Broward counties at three, the casino bill puts Florida in never-never land, Thompson said.
"You need the synergy of 10 or more big casinos to attract the best players," noted Thompson, who has studied and written about the gaming industry for more than three decades.
Having worked as a journalist in Las Vegas for 13 years, I can tell you that casino operators will say and do anything to get a gaming license and expand their reach.
Genting is already working both sides of the street. First, it dazzles politicians with the biggest conceivable project. Then, when concerns arise about the cannibalization of existing businesses, it strategically scales back.
Once they're licensed, casinos push relentlessly for more exclusions, exceptions and favors from the politicians who ostensibly regulate them. Think that will be a problem in corruption-ridden South Florida?
You can imagine the peals of laughter from casino moguls reading this sage advice from a Herald columnist:
"It all depends on how Florida legislators would regulate mega-casinos. If gaming corporations are allowed to build giant resorts with blinking lights, surrounded by "Girls, Girls, Girls" signs, pawn shops and casino company buses roaming the city offering free rides to take seniors to the gambling places, it will kill Miami as an international business center.
"On the other hand, if legislators demand that mega-casinos have a discreet appearance ... and if there are laws to prevent Miami from becoming a mecca for prostitutes, drunks, pickpockets and con artists, the proposed casino resort could be a good addition."
When it's all about cosmetics, the gamers win. Once government banks on games of chance, the odds swing heavily to casinos. Every rule becomes negotiable. Regulatory maximums become minimums to be raised.
Any attempt to rein in casinos or increase tax rates is reflexively, and effectively, denounced as "killing the goose that laid the golden egg." By setting a ridiculously low gaming tax of 10 percent, Fresen-Bogdanoff quickly signaled that they're horrible poker players.
Gaming companies run numbers for a living, and know a sucker from a mile away. They're not about to have their business models challenged by bureaucrats or "the people's representatives."
Gov. Scott, who has loads of private-sector experience, knows a thing or two about the foibles of government regulation. As a native of Illinois, he also should be well aware of the gaming industry's deleterious fiscal and social effects on that state.
Politically speaking, this is a no-brainer. The Florida Chamber of Commerce and virtually the entire tourism industry oppose an expansion of gaming. Florida voters have repeatedly voted down casino initiatives, and even the liberal St. Petersburg Times ridiculed this latest scheme.
Las Vegas, Atlantic City and 900 cheesy casino venues in between stand as monuments of a contemptuous and parasitic enterprise that promises money for nothing.
If Scott intends to lead Florida to meaningful economic growth, that's a promise and a premise he must summarily reject.
Reach Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
