In an interview with the Palm Beach Post’s Dara Kam today, December 21, 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott said “Lawmakers need to put an end to the uncertainty over the barrel racing and possible spread of it to other facilities.”
The article is reprinted below.
Scott: Lawmakers need to shut down barrel racing, slots
by Dara Kam | December 21st, 2011
Palm Beach Post “Post on Politics” Blog
Gov. Rick Scott is calling on lawmakers to quickly close what he called a gray area in Florida law that allowed a Panhandle racetrack to get a permit for barrel racing and a card room and opened the door for slot machines.
Scott also for the first time said he doesn’t believe lawmakers meant to include as a legitimate gambling activity when they passed laws regulating pari-mutuels.
“It doesn’t appear to me that it was the intent of the law. They need to clear it up,” Scott told The Palm Beach Post this afternoon.
Scott’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation issued the quarter horse permit to Gretna Racing – owned by the Alabama-based Poarch Creek Indians and gambling lawyers David Romanik and Marc Dunbar – last month. Regulators believed there was nothing in Florida law allowed them to deny the permit, now being challenged in court.
Lawmakers need to put an end to the uncertainty over the barrel racing and possible spread of it to other facilities – a track in Hamilton County has applied for a barrel racing permit – Scott said.
“It’s not fair to people who invest their dollars. It’s not fair to people who are supposed to enforce the law if the law’s not clear. So the legislature ought to clear it up whether that’s allowed or not,” He said.
Scott said he wants the legislature to act quickly before voters in Gadsden County, where the Gretna track is located, go to the polls on Jan. 31 to vote on a referendum allowing slot machines at the casino.
Voter approval of the referendum could threaten the state’s agreement with the Seminole Indians and cost Florida the $225 million the tribe gives annually. That agreement requires that slot machines be limited to pari-mutuels in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Slots at tracks elsewhere in the state could blow up next year’s budget which relies on the Seminole cash, Scott said.
“By not doing something, they’re making a decision that will put the Seminole compact at risk. I think they ought to clear it up ahead of time,” Scott said.
Dara Kam has covered the Capitol for more than a decade, first for the Associated Press and Gannett then for The Palm Beach Post for about five years. She never met a pair of fishnets she didn’t like and is still waiting for them to dim the lights in committee rooms so she can remove her shades. Reach her at 850-570-1592 or dara_kam@pbpost.com.
The United Florida Horsemen are:
· National and Florida Barrel Horse Association (24,000 members)
· American Quarter Horse Association (350,000 national members; 7,163 Florida members)
· Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association (439 members)
· U.S. Trotting Association (25,000 members)
· Florida Standardbred Owners and Breeders Association (630 members)
· Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association (1,300 members)
· National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (35,000 members)
· Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (5,000 members)
SouthFloridaRacingJournals Comment:
What I cannot understand is, they make this all sound illegal. Like any good lobbyist or criminal lawyer, Marc Scumbar found a loophole and was able to exploit it. I think anger should also be placed with the Floriduh politician’s as well as Scumbar, who are more interested in campaign donations, the family values sicko’s, taking away the civil rights of those they disagree with, religious license plates, taking away a women’s right to choose, school vouchers, sonograms, anti-gay amendments, disenfranchising blacks and the poor, making it harder to vote, and getting President Obama beat in 2012.
With all this said, Marc Dunbar is a scumbag! And yes, you can quote me on that! This is the kind of person who after meeting him, you want to take a shower. He is a slime ball.
What Marc Scumbar thinks is his interpretation of the law might be legal, but is it right?
Kent Sterling has it right.
Kent Sterling, who represents thoroughbred owners and trainers, says that operating a thoroughbred or quarter horse track means spending millions of dollars building stables.
“It’s a get-rich-quick scheme, is what it is.”It could destroy one of the largest industries in the state of Florida, the racing industry. We employ some 52,000 people. For 34 horses, they can’t employ too many people.”track and training facilities. At a typical track, he says, “several hundred horses compete in a season — compared with 30 or 40 horses competing in barrel races”.
Lets just hope the political hacks in Tallahassee get their heads out of their asses and see the mockery Marc Scumbar is making of pari-mutuel laws in Floriduh.