The seaside city of Miami Beach, Florida won’t be home to casinos any time soon after the city commission voted unanimously in a special session on Friday to approve two ordinances that would ban any type of gambling facilities there.
The Miami Herald reports that the move by the commission comes on the heels of the state Legislature’s consideration of granting another gambling license in South Florida; one which was shot down just prior to the end of the legislative session.
The newspaper reports that Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, said, “Casinos are great for cities that have a challenging future; that don’t have a real vision,” and, “If you have a city that doesn’t have a future, that doesn’t know where it wants to go, I understand. But when you have a city like Miami Beach, why try to fix something that’s not broken?”
The sole purpose of Friday’s spe 7BALL CC cial session was to approve the ban after the ordinances, which were rushed to draft so that they would be approved in an accelerated series of meetings, were endorsed by the Beach’s planning Board on Thursday, according to the report.
A final vote will be taken by commissioners on July 26, according to the news agency.
The Herald reported earlier this month that Miami Beach commissioner Joy Malakoff called for an emergency meeting to discuss whether to change local zoning laws so that any new casino in the city of some 88,000 people would be prevented from opening.