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North American horse racing’s voracious appetite for casino money to pay purses was dealt a gut punch in Florida last Wednesday. The state’s legislators approved three gambling measures that will render its two remaining thoroughbred tracks, Tampa Bay Downs and Gulfstream Park, at a severe disadvantage of competing with gaming operations at other facilities.
Legislators approved a 30-year ‘compact’ between Governor Ron DeSantis and the Seminoles, not only giving the tribe a monopoly on sports betting, but also permitting the addition of three new casinos on the site of their existing Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, an approximate 15-minute ride north of Gulfstream Park.
With the state set to pocket US$500 million (J$74.6 billion) a year from the deal for the next five years, the bill was easily passed, 38-1 in the Senate and 97-17 in the House.
This has left Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay dreading the worst, with revenue from slots operations to purses being approximately 20 per cent. Gulfstream Park’s slots contribute about US$6 million (J$896 million) annually to purses, which will take a hit from a more profitable competition with the tax rate on its casino operations at 35 per cent as opposed to the Seminoles’ 12.5 per cent.
PORTMORE AS AN ‘ENTERTAINMENT’ SPOT
Though Portmore may be the biggest community in the Caribbean, now accessible by toll roads and a widened Washington Boulevard-Ferry corridor, the Sunshine City, bar the Cactus Nightclub, Hellshire or Fort Clarence Beach, has never been an entertainment or leisure pull for Corporate Area residents, not to mention its more affluent, who will not drive past similar set-ups at Barbican, Manor Park, Liguanea, New Kingston and its outskirts, and head for Independence City.
https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/...ands-gold-mine
Legislators approved a 30-year ‘compact’ between Governor Ron DeSantis and the Seminoles, not only giving the tribe a monopoly on sports betting, but also permitting the addition of three new casinos on the site of their existing Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, an approximate 15-minute ride north of Gulfstream Park.
With the state set to pocket US$500 million (J$74.6 billion) a year from the deal for the next five years, the bill was easily passed, 38-1 in the Senate and 97-17 in the House.
This has left Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay dreading the worst, with revenue from slots operations to purses being approximately 20 per cent. Gulfstream Park’s slots contribute about US$6 million (J$896 million) annually to purses, which will take a hit from a more profitable competition with the tax rate on its casino operations at 35 per cent as opposed to the Seminoles’ 12.5 per cent.
PORTMORE AS AN ‘ENTERTAINMENT’ SPOT
Though Portmore may be the biggest community in the Caribbean, now accessible by toll roads and a widened Washington Boulevard-Ferry corridor, the Sunshine City, bar the Cactus Nightclub, Hellshire or Fort Clarence Beach, has never been an entertainment or leisure pull for Corporate Area residents, not to mention its more affluent, who will not drive past similar set-ups at Barbican, Manor Park, Liguanea, New Kingston and its outskirts, and head for Independence City.
https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/...ands-gold-mine
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015