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Florida Legislature 2005 (click for ongoing coverage)

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Senate panel approves Las Vegas-type slots

A bill more liberal than a House plan for regulating new Broward machines also would allow longer hours and not tax them as heavily.

TALLAHASSEE - Three tracks and a jai-alai fronton in Broward County could install Las Vegas-style slot machines under a bill a Senate panel approved Tuesday.

The bill also would let the facilities have as many machines as they want and run them 16 hours a day, 365 days a year. It was approved 6-3 by the Regulated Industries Committee.

Last week, a House committee approved a bill limiting the four parimutuels to the kind of electronic bingo machines now at Indian-run casinos. It would allow them to be open as long as 14 hours daily during the week and around the clock on the weekend.

The Senate plan (CS-SB 1174) would also tax slot machines at a lower rate than would the House bill (HB 1901).

The Senate tax scale would range from 30 percent on revenue under $100-million, to 32.5 percent on revenue between $100-million and $200-million, to 35 percent above $200-million.

The House legislation sets a scale depending on how many machines a facility installs: Facilities with 1,000 or fewer machines would be taxed at 35 percent; facilities with 1,000 to 2,000 machines would be taxed at 40 percent; and facilities with as many as 3,000 machines, the maximum under the bill, would be taxed at 45 percent.

Any tax collected from the slot machines will be earmarked for schools, according to a constitutional amendment voters passed in November.

Both proposals need approval from more committees before coming up for floor votes.

The amendment approved in November permitted slot machines in Miami-Dade and Broward counties if local voters approved. Broward voters later did so, while Miami-Dade voters rejected them.

[Last modified April 6, 2005, 01:06:15]