Proponents See Odds in Their Favor in Fight to Open Casinos in Florida

Casino gambling, the dream of South Florida hoteliers, is the subject of another high-stakes campaign, and this time supporters bet they are going to win.

“It’s going to be a tough campaign, but I believe in it because our economy needs it very badly,” said David Kennedy, a former mayor of Miami who is heading the fight to legalize craps, slot machines, roulette and blackjack.

Kennedy, chairman of the Citizens for County Choice campaign, believes that about a dozen casinos dotted from Miami to Fort Lauderdale would draw gamblers who now vacation in the Bahamas back to Miami Beach, where the tourist business is the sorriest it has ever been. It has been dying ever since Mickey Mouse came to Orlando, pulling travelers away from the beach.

Tourism Rise Seen

An upward blip in tourism in the Miami area is expected this year, with a surge in domestic travel because the terrorism and nuclear scares in Europe. No one can say yet how it’s likely to affect the casino issue.

The casinos could be low-profile, Kennedy said, like the club casinos in London, which most people don’t know exist. “We’ll recommend no neon signs.”

After a couple of years of trying, enough signatures were collected to take the issue to a statewide vote this November. The proposal would not automatically permit casinos but would give each county the choice of later holding its own vote on casinos.

Kennedy’s group has raised $1.2 million for television ads, which will focus on federal budget cutbacks and the windfall the state would get by raking off 8% of the casino profits.

Casinos Lost in 1978

It’s not the first time Florida has grappled with the casino issue. But things have changed since 1978, when residents voted 2 to 1 against them.

Said Rabbi Pinchas Weberman, head of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of South Florida: “In 1978, we had a good tourist industry. It was a good place to raise a child. I felt at that time we didn’t need it. Things have changed.”

Weberman has taken the Roman Catholic archdiocese to task for coming out against casinos. He charges that the Catholics may be afraid casinos will cut into attendance at church bingo games.

Louisiana and West Virginia are also thinking of allowing casinos.

Gov. Edwin W. Edwards of Louisiana wants to put a dozen casinos in New Orleans to balance the state budget, and the Legislature is considering his request. Edwards is at odds with the mayor of New Orleans, who wants just one casino, in the French Quarter.

West Virginia’s governor believes casinos would generate $150 million a year in tax revenues. The Legislature, pressured by religious groups, shot down plans for a statewide vote last February. But Resorts International has offered to put $500 million into building three casinos, and the question could resurface.

Slot Machines Vetoed

In Maryland, the General Assembly has twice in the last two years passed bills permitting Elks Clubs, the American Legion and the like to install one-armed bandits if they spend the proceeds on charity. However, Gov. Harry Hughes twice vetoed the slots.

As for Florida, Phil Hammersmith, strategist for the casino group, said that the proposal has a good chance of being approved this time because many new residents have never voted on casinos. The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce shocked casino opponents this spring when its poll found that a majority of chamber members want gambling.

Virtually every tourist business on Miami Beach now favors casino gambling except “some nutty ones who want to struggle,” said Bennett Lifter, who owns a hotel on the island resort. If the initiative is approved, he plans to turn a scruffy lot across from his aging beachside Marco Polo Hotel into a $300-million casino-hotel.

If not, he will convert the Marco Polo to condominiums.

Bedroom Community

“There is no way we can continue like this. Miami Beach is on the verge of going out of the tourism business. It is becoming a bedroom community for Miami,” he said.

“People like to gamble. What’s the big deal? You get dressed up at night, go to a casino and gamble. So you lose $100 or $200. The alternative in Miami Beach today is to stay in your hotel room and watch television.”

The anti-casino campaign is being run from Clearwater by Presbyterian fundamentalist and drugstore magnate Jack Eckerd. So far, his No Casinos Inc. has raised about $300,000 of the $2 million or more that Eckerd believes is needed to defeat the initiative. Most of his contributions have come from big Miami banks, including Southeast, AmeriFirst and CenTrust, which each gave $50,000.

Thomas Bomar, president of AmeriFirst, said casinos are “probably the worst economic event that could occur in a community. They drive out productive business, they drive out family tourism, they corrupt governments and they have absolutely no benefit to a community.”

Eckerd said in an interview that his group will probably begin its full campaign in the fall but is prepared to run ads sooner. The plan is to portray the Atlantic City gambling experiment in as seedy a light as possible and persuade voters that gambling would frighten away tourists. The group has backed away from portraying gambling as immoral.

Opponents Running Scared

“We’re going to run scared,” Eckerd said. “We’ve got a very serious, well-funded opponent.” He conceded that casinos may be popular in Miami but that elsewhere, “I think there is a large number out there who don’t know how they want to vote.”

Miami Beach could revive tourism by modernizing its hotels, Eckerd suggested.

Many hoteliers in Orlando, Palm Beach and on the west coast of Florida are noncommittal about gambling.

“I don’t think it’s going to pass,” said Robert Mott, general manager of the Boca Raton Hotel and Club.

Also lining up against casinos are cruise ship lines, race tracks, the Catholic Church, Disney World and the state’s heavy Democratic political machinery. Gov. Bob Graham, Atty. Gen. Jim Smith and former Gov. Reubin Askew all pledged to work against the proposal.

But this array is not as powerful as it looks. Smith is running for governor, Graham for senator and Askew is moving his law offices from Miami to Orlando--so none of the three has been putting much energy into it.

Disney Against Gambling

Disney and its real estate branch, Arvida, plan to contribute $50,000.

“Our motive is obvious,” said Bob Allen, vice president of Disney World. “We are not a jet set resort. We deal with the station wagon folks. It’s our opinion that where casino gambling exists you don’t get family tourists.”

So far, the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami has probably taken the strongest stand against casinos:

“The casino atmosphere invites unsavory companions into a community, an increase in street crime, open prostitution, loan-sharking, corruption of officials, alcohol and drug abuse, undesirable visitors, opportunities for crime syndicates to flourish and community deterioration,” Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy said.

Arthur Nehrbass, commander of Dade County’s Organized Crime Division, agrees with the church.

Nehrbass said that the North Miami-Fort Lauderdale area has been a favorite haunt of organized crime since the days when Al Capone used to vacation in Miami.

Garbage and Laundry

“If there is a dollar to be made, they will try to become involved in it,” he said. It is possible to regulate organize crime out of casino-hotel ownership, he said, but regulators cannot keep it out of ancillary services, such as garbage and laundry.

Atlantic City, with 11 new casino-hotels, has suffered from more street crime, car thefts, pickpockets, prostitution and organized crime, New Jersey officials say. Moreover, little non-gambling development has taken place in Atlantic City since casinos were approved.