Politicians Site Disney World As A Reason To Stop Blackjack

When an opposition group wants to cast fear about their opponents in the casino gambling battle, they turn to some pretty wild idea. The latest one in Florida might be the craziest ever posed.

Attorney General Bill McCollum is worried that blackjack expansion to Seminole casinos throughout the state would be detrimental because the state has many young people visiting Florida. The young people he is speaking of? Children.

"We are a tourist state with a lot of young people visiting. we've got Disney World, we've got lots of other tourist attractions, and expanding Indian gambling would be a bad idea in my opinion," said McCollum.

While that may be the stance of politicians who feel slighted by Governor Charlie Crists signing of a compact with the Seminole Indians, it clearly is not the voice of the people. In both Broward and Miami-Dade Counties in the past several years, voters have chosen to vote in favor of slot expansion.

Those votes follow a trend that is spreading throughout the country. "People are starting to change their opinions of casino gambling in the United States. For a long time, state governments invoked fear in voters by running negative ads against casino gambling, but in recent years, people are starting to see the benefits of having casinos in their states, and they are voting accordingly," said Harvey Graham, a gaming historian.

Seminole spokesman Gary Bitner believes it is time for Florida politicians to stop causing the state to lose revenue money. "We're talking about quick hops (to the Bahamas), basically, for people to go play whatever they want. I think that over time that has had the effect of making people in the state of Florida feel more comfortable. That's the public we're talking about, not necessarily elected officials," said Bitner, to the AP.

November 8, 2008
Posted By Vincent Tapoglia III
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
Submit News!