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?