Florida Gaming Bills Pulled After Opposition from South Floria
After considering two bills allowing for gaming expansion in South Florida, legislators pulled the bills last week after receiving pushback from South Florida leaders and residents.
The Florida gaming bills in the House and Senate would have allowed gaming licenses to be transferred to another property within a 30-mile radius. Jeffrey Soffer, owner of the famed Fontainebleau resort in Miami Beach, is believed to have been a major supporter of the plan.
Soffer hoped to move the license from his Big Easy Casino and Hollywood Greyhound Track at Hallandale Beach to Fontainebleau, where he has long believed a casino would be a nice addition. However, in recent weeks opposition grew among some influential South Florida officials and business leaders, including billionaire hedge fund owner Ken Griffin.
“Allowing casinos to harm thriving communities and undermine Florida families is like willingly dumping toxic waste into the Everglades,” Griffin said. “Casinos are a bad bet for Florida.”
Considerable Opposition to Casino Plans
Along with Soffer, reports also noted that former President Donald Trump may have also benefited from the legislation. His golf resort in Doral may have benefitted from the plan and his son, Eric Trump, has referred to the property as “unmatched from a gaming perspective.”
Support among legislators apparently fell apart last week and many political observers in the state signaled there wasn’t much hope for passage. The Senate’s Regulated Industries Committee was set to review the issue Monday, but that was canceled shortly after announcing the meeting. Miami Beach government officials have been opposed to the plan.
“It’s an existential threat to our community,” Miami Beach Mayor and longtime gaming opponent Dan Gelber told the Miami Herald. The town voted in 2017 to ban gambling, but the proposal apparently included wording that would override those types of restrictions.
The Miami Beach Commission went so far as to approve the use of a plane to transport 100 officials and residents to the capital of Tallahassee to voice their opposition to the proposal, according to reports. Quickly after that announcement, the meeting was scrapped.
This may come as bad news for Soffer, who has worked to bring gambling to his Miami Beach for several years. He purchased the casino property in 2021 and has lobbied for changes in gambling law so that the gaming license could be relocated to Fontainebleau.
That has included donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican legislators who favored the plan. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also favored the legislation and urged legislators to support the bills.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas Property Sees Management Changes
Potentially adding gaming to the Miami Beach Soffer property would shift the company focusing a bit more toward associating casino gaming with the Fontainebleau after opening a major resort casino bearing the same name in Las Vegas in December.
Hopes for gaming at the Miami Beach property may be dashed, but gambling continues at the Sin City resort. However, in related news that casino has seen several management employees leave the company over the last couple months.
In early January, Chief Operating Officer Colleen Birch and Chief Marketing Officer Shane Smith voluntarily resigned, according to the company. That came after Senior Vice President of Casino Operations Michael Clifford exited Fontainebleau in December.
The $3.7 billion casino and hotel was unveiled on Dec. 18 and the loss of three members of key casino management may have shocked some in the casino and gaming sector. Birch was hired in November 2022 and previously worked as vice president of revenue optimization at The Cosmopolitan. Smith began working for the company in January 2023.
The two also previously worked at the North Strip property, which was delayed for years after numerous changes in ownership, financing issues, lawsuits, bankruptcies, and other problems with developing the site. Birch previously served as a revenue management director for the project in 2008 while Smith worked briefly with the Witkoff real estate development firm, one of the site’s previous owners before Fontainebleau Development reacquired the casino plan and site.
Clifford began working at the casino in February before leaving in December. Before that position, he worked as a manager of Crockford’s Gaming at Resorts World in 2021 and also at Macau’s Wynn Palace and with MGM Resorts.
Fontainebleau Development also owns hotels and resorts in Boston and Nashville, and the company’s portfolio includes several residential properties. In Las Vegas, the Fountainebleu casino includes: a 67-story, 3,644-room hotel; 150,000 square feet of casino space with 42-foot-high ceilings; a 3,800-seat, 90,000-square-foot theater; a 50,000-square-foot Liv nightclub; and numerous restaurants and bars.
The resort is expected to be an additional driver of traffic to the north end of the Strip, which also now includes the Sahara, Resorts World, and the expanded Las Vegas Convention Center.
