At least $20,340,706 -- Includes 1994 ballot initiative spending and 1994-96 campaign contributions

• Search $444,448 in Florida gambling contributions from 1994-96

June 9, 1997

The Sunshine State already has a lottery, racetrack betting, Indian casinos, "cruises to nowhere" (gambling boats that escape state regulation by taking bettors into international waters), and, as of January 1997 -- thanks to a statute passed in the 1996 legislative session -- limited-stakes card rooms at existing pari-mutuel locations.

With all these existing gaming options, in 1994 the state looked ripe for corporate casinos. That year big gambling interests, including Mirage Resorts, Promus (the parent company of Harrah's Casinos), and Bally's threw their weight behind three competing proposals. After a $19 million battle, only one made the ballot: The Proposition for Limited Casinos, which would have permitted licensing the state's pari-mutuel operations as casinos, as well as a limited number of hotel/casinos, was rejected by voters by a 24 percent margin.

Gambling interests also gave at least $444,448 to candidates for state office from 1994-96, according to a Mother Jones search of the Florida Department of State's campaign finance database, a rare example of full public disclosure of election records done right -- though so far it primarily lists contributions and expenditures reported since January 1, 1996. We've built our own database of these gambling contributions for you to search; if you know of gaming interests we missed, you can search for them on the Florida Web site.

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