"Lawmakers are right that it's not the time to call a special legislative session to address gambling issues. But dealing with gambling, as Tallahassee must this coming spring, is long overdue.

It's not like gambling popped up overnight as either a business, entertainment form, potential state revenue source or public policy challenge. No, it's lawmakers who have been a collective passive-aggressive lot on this issue, and who have only taken it up as a priority because of the budgetary collapse they've had to deal with the past two years.

And yet, they've accomplished little, and settled even less. In the process, compacts negotiated by the governor with the Seminoles have come and gone by the wayside. The Legislature dithered even after voters approved a constitutional amendment five years ago, paving the way for casinos at Broward and Miami-Dade pari-mutuels.

So, 2010 maddeningly will find Florida without a blueprint or a plan to govern or gain from one of the hottest-growing entertainment businesses in the past decade. And you can lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of your state lawmakers, who will then blame each other."

Get the Story:
Editorial: No special session on gambling. (The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 12/15)