TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) – A state appeals court Wednesday said Miami-Dade County’s Calder Race Course can continue operating slot machines if it discontinues horse racing and offers jai alai games.
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A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and rejected arguments by thoroughbred breeders and owners.
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Winter Garden, Florida RE: CONSTITUTION–AMENDMENTS–LEGISLATURE–constitutional amendment permitting slot machines at certain pari-mutuel facilities in Broward and Miami Dade Counties after approving referendum requires implementing legislation. Dear Representative Johnson.
The case was rooted, in part, in a 2004 constitutional amendment that allowed pari-mutuel facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to operate slot machines.
Calder, which has run horse races for decades, obtained a permit to operate slot machines.
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In 2018, Calder asked the Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering about whether it could continue to operate slot machines if it shifted from offering horse races to jai alai.
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The idea drew opposition from the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association and Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co., Inc. Wednesday’s ruling said Calder obtained its slot-machine license as what is known as an “eligible facility” under a section of state law.
“Contrary to the appellants’ (the opponents’) arguments, nothing in the plain language of (the section of law) requires a facility to continue the same form of pari-mutuel wagering activity that originally qualified it for a slot machine license; nor does this statute tie an ‘eligible facility’ to the same type of racing or gaming as it had when the constitutional amendment was approved,” said the nine-page ruling, written by appeals-court Judge James Wolf and joined by judges Clay Roberts and M. Kemmerly Thomas.
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