Longwood city election spurs bill to strip cities of control of cardroom gambling

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The results of Tuesday night’s elections for the Longwood City Commission – with three new commissioners elected to office – has spurred state Reps. Scott Plakon and Bob Cortes to file a bill that would strip cities from having any approval of cardrooms at pari-mutuel facilities such as dog tracks.

Longwood is home to the Sanford Orlando Kennel Club, a dog track that has been pushing for years for the opportunity to open a cardroom, but which has been rebuffed by the Longwood City Commission. The Seminole County Board of Commissioners also is on record opposing any expansion of gambling in the county.

Tuesday’s election brought Richard Drummond, Matthew Morgan, and Abigail Shoemaker to the five-member Longwood City Commission. Drummond is security manager at the dog track, and both he and Morgan received $1,000 checks from the Central Florida Greyhound Association for their campaigns.

Drummond said Thursday that he ran with no intent to push for gambling expansion, has made no promises he would support it, and would not advocate it to other commissioners, yet he is open to the prospect, saying it should be up to the citizens of Longwood. He supposed he would have to recuse himself if the matter came up to the commission, though he said that would ultimately be up to the city attorney. He also said if it does come up, he would like to see the issue put before voters in a referendum.

Plakon and Cortes filed House Bill 6029 late Wednesday, which would require the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to require an approving vote of the county commissioners, rather than of a municipal commission, before issuing a cardroom license.

Plakon, of Longwood, Cortes, of Altamonte Springs, and another Seminole County Republican state representative, Jason Brodeur, of Sanford, all openly backed the losing candidates in the three Longwood races, City Commissioners Mark Weller and John Maingot, and Michael Dodane.

Plakon said Thursday he is concerned that, unlike previous Longwood commissioners, Drummond’s Morgan’s and Shoemaker’s positions on gambling expansion are not publicly known.

But Plakon said the point of his and Cortes’s bill is the concern that any new gambling has impact far beyond a specific city, and should have at least county-wide review before the state would issue a cardroom license. Currently Florida law allows the division to issue licenses from pari-mutuel facilities if they get approvals from their city commissions, unless the locations are in unincorporated areas, when the law requires approvals from the county commissions.

Drummond said the bill is pay-back for his, Morgan’s and Shoemaker’s victories over the candidates that Plakon and Cortes backed.

“This needs to be decided at the city level, not at the state,” Drummond said. “The only [place] this [bill] is going to effect is the city of Longwood. … I’m very frustrated that they’re going to continue to get back at us after their candidates lost the election. It’s just sad they want to step in and then use their power and their authority to interfere with local politics.”

There are only two pari-mutuels in the entire state that do not have card rooms, The Sanford Orlando Kennel Club and Orlando Live Events, formerly known as the Orlando Jai Alai Fronton, which is in unincorporated Seminole County, in Cortes’s district.

“The previous [Longwood] commissioners, to us, had stated very clearly their opposition to expanding gambling in the dog track. But during the election it wasn’t entirely clear to us, the now new commissioners, what their position is,” Plakon said.

“The well-known deleterious affects of [gambling expansion] go well beyond the borders of that,” city, Plakon said. “So we filed this legislation thinking it’s more appropriate to empower counties to make this decision since it will likely have an impact on their constituents as well.”

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].


4 comments

  • MICHAEL

    November 10, 2017 at 10:16 am

    !!!!There are only two pari-mutuels in the entire state that do not have card rooms, The Sanford Orlando Kennel Club and Orlando Live Events, formerly known as the Orlando Jai Alai Fronton, which is in unincorporated Seminole County, in Cortes’s district.!!!!

    Do we really need another card room and more gambling?? The only one benefiting would be the owner of the card room. It would not create thousands of jobs or even hundreds of jobs. It would only be a way for that owner to expand gaming and skirt the law with designated player games for the money.

    Creating another poker room equals expanding gaming no matter how you look at it. 2 poker rooms plus 2 more poker rooms equals 4 poker rooms.. A first grader can do this math but for the Government employees who went to college for many years can’t figure out 2 + 2… Thats why it is taking years for them to figure out designated player games are not MULTI-POT POKER… and why the Seminoles beat them up in court and why the Judge tells them the games are illegal

    • Chad

      November 11, 2017 at 12:03 am

      So you are saying that the people of Longwood or the county can’t decide how they spend their money, even if they want to gamble it? No you are not authoritarian at all…

    • Pari mutuel man

      November 13, 2017 at 4:25 pm

      You sir, are a blithering know-nothing. The games offered by the rooms are texas hold em and omaha.. pot based house commission only poker… the table games only represent a FRACTION of the total tables and crime has been a non factor state wide in regard to card clubs… stop speaking on that of which you have ZERO working knowledge.

  • Bill

    November 10, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    Does it seem right that Orlando Jai-Alai owner has been losing a fortunate and POKER would turn the place into a viable business,not being allowed to have one.I say put it too the people to vote.If it passes and people don’t want to play so be it,

Comments are closed.


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