Casino gambling in Downtown Miami?

[Alan Mendelson]

When I was a news reporter at WTVJ in Miami back in the Ralph Renick days, there were advocates of casino gambling to help save Miami Beach. This was back in the early 1980s when the big hotels in Miami Beach were starving for business, and South Beach was a slum and the elderly surviving on Social Security and little else crowded the side walks in folding chairs passing their days. Miami Beach was depressed then, except for the lucrative but illegal drug market that sent Miami's crime rate soaring and scared away tourists.

The idea back then was that casino gambling would rescue Miami Beach. When I was reporting stories about the campaign I spoke to some of the hotel owners who would point to their empty ballrooms and say "we could put our casino here."

But that was about thirty years ago. And in January, the Florida Legislature will take up proposals to allow three casinos to be built in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale areas. There is already Indian gaming in Florida.

As you will read on our web page for Florida real estate http://alanbestbuys.com/id203.html there is already anticipation that the casinos will be approved and a giant Malaysian casino operator is already buying property and planning for a giant resort right in the heart of downtown Miami.

Wow.

I remember going to Orlando to cover the opening of Disney World and when I interviewed a rep of Disney I asked their feeling about casino gambling in Florida and they were dead set against it. Back in our newsroom in Miami we thought Disney World might also make for a great casino resort.

I also was dispatched to Atlantic City to report on how casinos there had changed the city. I interviewed the Mayor of Atlantic City who told me adding casinos to Miami or Miami Beach would be a big mistake. But at the time we thought he just didn't want the competition that a combination of Miami sunshine and Miami casinos would bring to Atlantic City.

I will certainly be interested in seeing what the Florida legislature decides to do. The news reports are all pointing to opening casinos to help raise revenue for the state and to create jobs. Sounds like a familiar theme and plan.

And I wonder what the Vegas-based casino companies would think about a Malaysian casino giant opening up shop in downtown Miami?

[Alan Mendelson]

The legislation to allow for the three casinos to be built in Miami was introduced last week in the Florida legislature. The requirement for each of the casino projects is that the budget must be a minimum of two billion dollars each. This will certainly make the South Florida economy a winner in terms of construction jobs and suppliers of the projects including building materials, furniture, bathroom fixtures, furnishings including carpets and window coverings and art work and lighting will also be immediate winners.

News reports say that the largest proposed casino project will have more hotel rooms than MGM Grand on the Vegas Strip and it will be the biggest casino in the USA if not the world.

But going beyond the construction and the jackpot for construction jobs and ultimately the casino resort jobs that will follow, my concern is that the Miami market will be limited to only three casinos --and there is not much competition when you only have three casinos.

Players in Las Vegas complain that there isn't much competition with Caesars/Harrahs and MGM owning most of the properties on the Strip. But after those two giants there are still Wynn and Las Vegas Sands and Station Casinos as well as other independents. But in South Florida there will be only three casino companies with a lock on that particular market.

Gaming advocates in South Florida while focusing on getting the Big 3 approved should also consider the flip side of only having three mega resorts instead of more competition from more, smaller properties, or allowing other properties in addition to the Big 3.