The winners in Broward are Gulfstream Park in Hallendale, Dania Jai-Alai in Dania Beach, Pompano Park in Pompano Beach and Hollywood Greyhound Track. On the losing side are locally based Flagler Dog Track, Miami Jai-Alai and Calder Race Course.

"We're ecstatic. I can't get the smile off my face," Steve Wolf, director of marketing for Pompano Park, tells GlobeSt.com. "We're already in the process of building a 150,000-sf `racino' next to the existing grandstand," he said. The construction cost is estimated at $100 million, "and we expect to open on New Year's Eve." Plans call for between 1,500 and 1,800 slots in this first phase of expansion.

Beyond phase one, "we have grandiose plans," Wolf says. "We hope to eventually add a hotel and convention center and provide Pompano Park with the complete Isle of Capri experience." Biloxi, MS-based Isle of Casinos Inc. owns this park along with 16 land-based and riverboat casinos.

"This is a big deal for us," added Dick Feinberg, Pompano Park manager, during a job fair following the vote. He said the park plans 1,200 new hires, 90% of which will be from the local area. Gulfstream Park is already in the midst of redevelopment. The plan includes construction of a new 300,000-sf clubhouse.

Meanwhile, on the losing side of the vote, Flagler Dog Track here puts preliminary designs for a casino-style addition on the shelf. "We're extremely disappointed in the outcome of the vote," Baird Thompson, marketing consultant, tells GlobeSt.com. "The whole Flagler family is devastated by it." The family, which owns several greyhound racing tracks, is not related to Jacksonville-based Flagler Development Co.

"We absolutely will go back to the voters in another two years when a vote on the same question is eligible to be again placed on the ballot. By then, voters will have a much better idea of what the addition of slots can mean," Thompson adds. A portion of slots revenues is to be devoted to public education.

On condition of anonymity, a Miami-Dade gaming company representative tells GlobeSt.com that the split decision by voters in the neighboring counties was perhaps more devastating to Miami gaming venues than a parallel rejection might have been. The availability of slots in neighboring Broward will likely siphon existing business from gaming facilities here, he says.

Much remains to be determined regarding rules and regulations for the Broward County slots venues. The state legislature must rule on the number of slot machines allowable at each of the four facilities, the days and hours of operation, and the taxes the facilities' owners will have to pay the state from slots revenues. Despite his anti-slot position, the governor acknowledges that the legislature is bound to implement the outcome of the vote.