Miami Loses Bid

Miami International Airport fought the good fight but was unfortunately not a winner in the end. The airport had been trying to get slot machines legalized in their location, but had been fighting an uphill battle against the local race tracks who were bound and determined to keep it from happening. 

The airport had said that they needed to expand and that the only way that they would be able to pay for it would be to bring in slot machines. They said that as Miami Dade County and Broward County already allowed slot machine that it should not be an issue for them to allow them as well. They argued that it costs them $600 million a year to run the airport and slot machines could greatly offset that cost, as well as bring in more money to the county and to the state from their revenue. 

But the local casinos said that if the airport was allowed to bring in slot machines that they would put them out of business. They argued that the tourists that normally came through for business or whatnot and left the airport to play at their slot machines would no longer do that, and that they would lose millions of dollars in slot machine revenue because of it. They said that the airport should have to find another way of funding itself.

However, Florida State Regulators rejected their application for slot machines and said that they could not promise that they were going to be able to set up their operation within a year, that they were not a pari-mutuel operation, and that they did not qualify as a “person” under state licensing laws.

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