A Florida political committee is looking to make it hard for gambling to expand in the state of Florida. Under the name, “Voters in Charge”, is sponsoring a ballot to “give Florida voters, not politicians, the exclusive right to approve or disapprove casino gambling.”
Disney seems to agree with them as they have silently been donating money to their cause. The committee so far has collected $287,675 and $250,000 of it came from Disney Worldwide Services. Another contributor was the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association which donated $30,000.
So far, the money has been used to gather petitions by paying the firm, National Voter Outreach, Inc. For the moment, it looks like they are making ways as the Florida Supreme Court signed off on the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment which would give voters exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling in Florida.
It appears the Florida Supreme Court is also behind this state constitutional amendment as they voted 4-2 on favor of the amendment with Chief Justice Jorge Labarga , Justices Barbara Pariente, Peggy Quince and Charles Canady voting in favor of it. On the opposite end of the vote were Justices Ricky Polston and R. Fred Lewis while Justice Alan Lawson abstained from the vote.
For those that are worried about not seeing that new casino in your area, keep in mind that “Voters in Charge” still needs to submit several hundreds of thousands of verified petition signatures before it can come up for a vote November of next year.
According Disney, it is in support of “Voters in Charge” because they do not want Florida to turn into a casino destination. Since Disney has such a strong presence in Florida, they want Florida to remain a family friendly state which would of course be in sync with their Disney World Resorts.
From the gambling industry’s point of view, this is latest constitutional amendment is a thorn in their side that could or could not make it harder to expand in Florida. In fact, many virtual sports betting companies around the world had their eyes set in expanding in Florida. This has brought some concern from many sports betting software companies as it would cut into their potential revenue.