A plane at Miami International Airport

A major selling point for the developers lobbying to bring casino resorts to downtown Miami is the boost it would provide to hotels, restaurants and other staples of the tourism industry.

But the Miami Herald questions whether the costs of legalizing gambling are really worth whatever benefit it may offer to a vacation industry that just posted its best year ever despite the recession. Miami hotel room revenue rose 14 percent in 2011, the third largest gain in the nation, and hotel tax revenue skyrocketed 29 percent even after a strong 2010. [more]

Downtown Miami isn’t the only possible destination for a Las Vegas Sands casino. According to the South Florida Business Journal, Sands is seriously considering Broward County depending on tax rates and local opposition to such a development.

Sands, which had previously mentioned Palm Beach as a possible destination, is eying potential sites with about 40 acres of land near major roads and airports. The exact details of the project would depend on several factors, but it would likely include about 500,000-square feet of convention space. [more]

Las Vegas Sands, which is one of the reported suitors for a proposed second casino site in Miami (if Asian firm Genting gets approval for its plan), would position its site as a center for conventions and conferences, according to the South Florida Business Journal. But Miami may not be its only target — according to the company, it is considering a range of locations — even Palm Beach. [more]

Gov. Charlie Crist has signed a senate bill finalizing a 20-year compact between Florida and the Seminole Tribe. The deal could bring the state almost $7 million, and would allow Class III gaming like blackjack and roulette, but exclusively for Seminole casinos. Five of the tribe’s seven Florida casinos will offer the games. The original deal Crist signed with the Seminoles was rejected by the Florida Supreme Court in 2007. Sen. Dennis Jones recently said the compact would not affect proposals for South Florida casinos such as those made by the Las Vegas Sands Group last month. [SFBJ] [more]

Executives from the Las Vegas Sands Group met with Florida legislators last week
to pitch a series of integrated casino resorts for South Florida,
specifically Miami-Dade and Broward. Fort Lauderdale Republican Rep. Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff, once a
self-described “ardent” opponent of gaming, acknowledges the potential
economic impact of the proposal. Florida is now the fourth-largest
gaming state in the nation, but the vast majority of it is controlled
by what Bogdanoff sees as a monopoly by the Seminole Indian tribe. It
is time for gaming change in Florida, and Bogdanoff thinks the
Sands proposal could represent the way forward. The Real Deal spoke with Bogdanoff, who is now running for state Senate, about the proposal. [more]

Casino executives from top Las Vegas resorts are making the case for a slew of Nevada-style resorts in Florida. The proposal includes four to six gambling resorts, each likely to cost more than $2 billion. According to Amy Baker, the Florida Legislature’s chief economist, the state could generate up to $2.3 billion just from up-front fees. The company is particularly interested in Miami-Dade and Broward locations. This is not the first time such a bid has been made, including the more recent lobbying by the developers of the Fontainebleau remodel in 2008. Questions remain about how such a proposal, if approved, would affect those casinos already operated by Indian tribes such as the Hard Rock, and whether any gambling rule liberalization would apply to pre-existing facilities in the state. [Sun-Sentinel] 2 Comments

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