Las Vegas Sands Gives Up On Florida CasinoCompany Will No Longer Lobby In State: Report |
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Las Vegas Sands Corp., the largest casino developer in the world based on revenue, is giving up on building a so-called “destination casino resort” in the state of Florida, according to SaintPetersBlog.
A lobbyist said that the company is axing all of its consulting contracts for public relations and lobbying in the state, the report said. Sands reportedly is now focused on Georgia, which is considering legalizing Las Vegas-style casinos. Sands’ owner Sheldon Adelson is also still pushing to ban online casino games nationwide because he thinks they will hurt his business.
Sands has been lobbying in Tallahassee for the past six years, but lawmakers who support the new casinos in the Sunshine State have not been able overcome the opposition, which has included the likes of Disney, which believes these types of casinos would hurt the family-friendly image of the state. Also opposing a Sands project in South Florida are the Seminoles, who have an exclusivity deal with Florida for table games.
Florida and the Seminoles are still in talks about renewing their gaming compact.
“As long as the tribe is influencing the gaming landscape, there will never be room for us,” the Sands lobbyist told SaintPetersBlog.
Sands would have been one of three companies allowed to build the destination casino resorts under a gambling reform plan that was proposed several years ago and had signs of life at times since. A later bill, which was 316 pages in length, called for two of these commercial casinos.
The multi-billion-dollar casinos in the Miami region were just one of the gambling industry changes lawmakers have considered recently. Another idea is to decouple poker and greyhound racing and another is to allow the lottery to go online.
While Sands is now out of lobbying in Tallahassee, the daily fantasy sports industry has recently established a presence in the capital city. The fledgling DFS industry apparently wants to make sure Florida considers the games completely legal under state law. DFS is legal under federal law.
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