Tuesday's column discussed the status of pari-mutuels in Florida and elsewhere, and, in particular, the Tampa Bay Times article by Mary Ellen Klas and Jeremy Wallace that detailed the supposed current sad state of affairs. One paragraph that needs to be repeated here: "But as Florida legislators decide whether to ratify a deal with the Seminole Tribe that cements in place the parameters of gaming in the state for the next 20 years, no one is talking about one thing: slot machines are declining, too."

    I mentioned that this was a blatant lie and here are the numbers to back it up. For the fiscal year 2014-2015 (July 1 - June 30), the South Florida casinos handled a record $7,979,515,006. That's nearly $8 billion, and it's the amount of money that was dropped into the machines at Gulfstream Park, Calder Casino, Flagler dog track, Miami Jai Alai, Pompano Park, Hollywood dog track, Hialeah Park, and, for a short time, Dania Jai Alai. 

    For the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the handle is up $79.2 million over the same period last year, meaning that Florida's first $8 billion year is in the works. 

    Since the Times article was not specific about whether slots were declining just in Florida, which is false, as you can see, let me switch to one of my favorite topics, the Resorts World Casino New York City, at Aqueduct.  

    Like Florida, the Big A casino has broken a record every year since it opened. For the last fiscal year (April 1 - March 31) the casino handled $18.3 billion in pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, dollar bills and whatever else they might throw in there. The current fiscal year has just five weeks or so remaining, and in the past few days, the record has already been broken again. The Aqueduct customers have surpassed the $18.3 billion mark and from the way they are sending it in, it appears as though the record they will be shooting for next will be between $20 billion and $21 billion.

    In the last fiscal year, the $400 million mark for one week was reached (for the first time) just once, the week crossing over into the new year. In this fiscal year, the $400 million mark has been topped no less than seven times, including the last two weeks. The now-record of $455,618,538 again came during the week ending Jan. 2.  

    If that sounds like slots are in decline, I need to take offense with all the math teachers I had while growing up. And I certainly take offense to the writers who don't bother to check their facts, especially when the facts are right at their fingertips. 

    

    

 

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