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Florida Gaming Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History

3500 NW 37th Avenue
Miami, Florida 33142
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

The Florida Gaming Corporation had its various companies produce one mission statement: to provide for over 75 years the very best the sport of jai-alai has to offer. We remain dedicated to this goal. While Florida Gaming offers other forms of wagering, such as poker and dominoes at Miami Jai-Alai, and simulcast betting on horse and dog racing at Ft. Pierce, there is one thing our patrons can count on: the opportunity to see jai-alai played at its highest level. We provide this top-notch sports entertainment for the public's enjoyment.

History of Florida Gaming Corporation

Florida Gaming Corporation bills itself as the world's largest jai-alai operator in the world. At the company's Miami and Fort Pierce Jai-Alai facilities, called frontons, customers can wager on live matches as well as on televised horse races and greyhound races. Jai-Alai at Fort Pierce is offered on a seasonal basis, while Miami matches are presented year-round and transmitted by satellite to 62 parimutuel wagering locations in Florida, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, in addition to 25 locations in Mexico, Central America, and Austria. The Miami fronton also houses the Crystal Card Room, where small-stakes poker and dominoes are played.

Origins in 1976

The corporate lineage of Florida Gaming can be traced back to the Lexicon Corporation, which had no connection to jai-alai or gambling. It was cofounded in 1976 by Michael Levy, a Georgia Tech engineering graduate who in the early 1970s was involved in pioneering computer efforts. Working with Harris Corporation he designed a microcomputer-based utility-control system. He then went to work for Miami's Milgo Electronics, a data modem manufacturer, before striking out on his own with Lexicon, which was established to manufacture a handheld language translator that Levy helped to design and patent. The company went public and Levy, at the age of 32, became president and CEO. Lexicon enjoyed some early success but efforts at developing other products failed to pay off. Among a number of attempts, it tried marketing a talking scale and became a defense contractor selling missile parts. In 1988, Levy created a subsidiary called Sports-Tech, which created a video-editing system for professional and college football coaches. The business secured enough early customers to warrant spinning off Sports-Tech in 1989 and taking it public. In the end, however, Lexicon failed to find a suitable business mix, never managed to top the $20 million mark in annual sales, and slowly faded. By 1993, the company was on its way to being delisted by the NASDAQ. Lexicon was sold to Freedom Financial Corp., and Levy resigned as both an officer and director of the company. Several months later he launched a new company, SportsLine USA, an early Internet business, which would later merge with CBS and become one of the most successful sports web sites.

Freedom Financial was almost exclusively owned by W. Bennett Collett, a businessman with a checkered background. He grew up in Kentucky during the Depression, his family forced to live off the dollar-per-day wages his mother earned as a domestic worker. During high school, Collett toiled in coal mines and saw mills before working his way through Ohio State, where he studied business and accounting. After a turn as an accountant, he struck out on his own, becoming primarily involved in insurance and banking. He served as principal shareholder and chief executive officer of 11 small banks across the country. According to the Miami Herald, "He was sued for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1979. The SEC alleged Collett headed a group of investors who acquired companies and gutted them by causing them 'to transfer valuable assets for inadequate consideration.'" Although Collett settled the matter without admitting guilt, he signed an order of permanent injunction, pledging not to violate SEC anti-fraud regulations. At the same time, Collett, according to the Herald, was also coming under fire from the Indiana Department of Insurance, which "forced Collett's Pilgrim Life Insurance into liquidation. In 1981, the department sued Collett personally, claiming he had stripped Pilgrim of its liquid assets." He reportedly settled the suit for $175,000 two years later. According to the Herald, "Collett says he never paid to settle a suit in Indiana. He does acknowledge paying $75,000 to the estate of an insurance company in Maryland to settle charges against him there. In all, four of Collett's insurance companies ended up in liquidation." He established Freedom Financial Corporation in 1985 to serve as a bank holding company, but by 1988 sold off its banking subsidiaries. Collett attempted to take Freedom Financial public in 1990 with the intention of raising $10 million, but, according to the Herald, "state regulators in New Jersey, Indiana, and Kentucky killed" the offering because "the prospectus issued to potential investors failed to disclose that Collett had been the subject of at least six prior legal actions." According to Indiana Securities Division Commissioner Mark Maddux, as quoted by Business First-Louisville, Collett "had a history of bad relations with people who have invested in his entities. There's just been a long history of disgruntled investors in this person's companies." Despite being unable to take Freedom Financial public, Collett gained the benefits of a publicly traded, listed company when Freedom Financial acquired Lexicon, which by 1993 was nothing more than a shell corporation.

Introduction of Jai-Alai to United States

Collett used Lexicon to enter the jai-alai business, a choice that appeared curious at first glance, since the glory days of the sport were long past. Jai-Alai is derived from the ancient game of handball. The contemporary game traces its origins to the Basque provinces of Spain and France during the 15th century. The Basque version of handball, or "pelota vasca," was played against a wall called a fronton, from which the name of a modern jai-alai facility is derived. The three-walled jai-alai court is known as the cancha. "Jai-Alai" itself means "merry festival," alluding to the tradition of playing the games during religious and holiday festivals. As the game evolved, bare hands were protected by leather gloves, then replaced by wooden paddles and ultimately the cesta, a long, hooked woven basket made of birch strips used for catching and throwing, which was introduced in the mid-19th century. It was the cesta that allowed jai-alai players to hurl the ball ("pelota") at speeds clocked as high as 175 miles per hour. The advent of the cesta completely changed the nature of the game. The ball was extremely hard, requiring granite walls, and the speed necessitated courts that were 172 feet long.

Jai-Alai was introduced in the United States at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, and Florida became the home of the nation's first Jai-Alai fronton in 1924. Ten years later, wagering on the sport was legalized in the state. In the 1970s, the "spectacular seven" scoring system was introduced to shorten the length of games in order to increase the frequency of wagering. Essentially bettors bet on a player in a singles match, or two-man team in a doubles match, in a round-robin format that featured eight players or teams playing to seven points. As with horse racing, bettors could make win, place, and show wagers, as well as a variety of "gimmick" bets such as the quinella (picking two numbers to finish in the win and place positions), the exacta (picking two numbers to finish in the win and place positions in exact order), and the trifecta (picking three numbers to finish in the win, place, and show positions in exact order).

Although Connecticut and Rhode Island also became havens for jai-alai in the United States, the sport was generally associated with Florida. With little competition from other professional sports or gambling outlets, jai-alai flourished in the state, reaching a peak in popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A number of factors would intervene, however, that severely hurt the business. Jai-Alai suffered a game-fixing scandal in the late 1970s, then in 1988 the players went on strike for two years. Although replacements were brought in, attendance suffered because fans had to cross picket lines to enter the frontons. In addition, major professional sports entered the territory. For a number of years the Miami Dolphins were the lone professional franchise, but they were soon followed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars in football. The National Basketball League awarded franchises to Miami and Orlando, while Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League expanded to Miami and Tampa Bay. Moreover, jai-alai faced ever-widening competition for gambling dollars. No longer contending with just horse and dog tracks, the fronton also competed against casinos and bingo halls operated by Native American tribes and casino ships that offered gaming three miles offshore. Perhaps the biggest impact, however, was caused by the introduction of the state lottery, which siphoned off many of jai-alai's traditional blue-collar, two-dollar bettors.

The amount wagered at a gambling facility, termed the "handle," was in steady decline at Fort Pierce Jai-Alai when Collett and Lexicon agreed to pay $3 million in February 1994 to acquire the inter-track wagering facility. Two months later Lexicon changed its name to Florida Gaming. Collett was not alone in developing a sudden interest in entering the jai-alai business, as within months jai-alai licenses increased dramatically in value. A referendum calling for the creation of 47 casinos, including the state's 30 parimutuel sites, was on the ballot in the November 1994 election. Twice before, in 1978 and 1986, Florida voters had rejected casino gambling, but in the past the parimutuel forces were left out of the equation and campaigned against the initiatives. Now jai-alai and racing interests were united in support of the referendum known as Proposition 8.

Collett told the press, "I'd like to say we knew this casino referendum was a possibility then, but in truth, we had no clue," adding that the fronton had been purchased because he "thought we could turn this into a very profitable business." According to SEC filings made by Florida Gaming, however, the company "participated in a Florida lobbying group that collected signatures to place a referendum before the voters of Florida in November 1994 to amend the Florida Constitution to permit casino gaming." Clearly, Florida Gaming's interest in jai-alai was related to the possibility of opening a casino, and in October 1994 the company signed a joint venture agreement with Casino America, Inc., to build and operate a casino at the Fort Pierce fronton if the referendum passed. Casino America was one of the nation's largest operators of riverboat casinos. The forces supporting Proposition 8 launched an advertising campaign in the weeks before the election, but Florida voters again rejected casino gambling.

Florida Gaming did not give up on the possibility of becoming involved in the casino business, retaining hope that the idea would ultimately take hold in Florida while at the same time seeking an alternative entry. In June 1995, the company signed an agreement with Centrum X Corporation, gaining first refusal rights to develop and manage a casino on the Tonkawa Indian Reservation in Oklahoma. Two months later Florida Gaming agreed in principle to acquire EagleVisions Gaming Group of the Americas Inc., which was headed by the former chief of the Mystic Lake Casino Complex in Minnesota. Also in August 1995, Florida Gaming signed an agreement to run a casino for the Ponca Tribe in Douglas County, Nebraska. None of these efforts to become involved in Native American casinos panned out. In addition, the company attempted in 1997 to become involved in Las Vegas, agreeing to pay $14.5 million for the Bourbon Street Hotel and its shuttered casino, a small property located a block from the famed Las Vegas strip. Collett vowed to spend as much as $6.5 million to renovate Bourbon Street, but the deal was never finalized and the property was sold to another party in 1998.

Approval for Low-Stakes Poker Rooms: 1997

Although Florida voters rejected casino gambling, legislators decided in 1996 to allow parimutuels to open low-stakes poker rooms in their facilities, pending local approval, starting January 1, 1997. The tables only permitted $10 maximum pots, of which the state received 10 percent, yet parimutuels were hopeful that they could make a profit out of poker. On December 31, 1996, Florida Gaming acquired WJA Realty Limited Partnerships, which owned jai-alai facilities in Tampa, Miami, and Ocala. The deal made Florida Gaming the largest jai-alai operator in the world, as well as one of the largest poker room operators in Florida.

Although the company's handle increased dramatically, from $25 million in 1996 to over $125 million in 1997, Florida Gaming lost over $4 million for the year. Much of that shortfall was due to the cost of building card rooms, but other factors were also involved. Poker played for a maximum $10 pot essentially eliminated raises and hardly generated the kind of enthusiasm necessary from bettors to make the business thrive. More importantly, the health of jai-alai was jeopardized because state taxes were based on the amount wagered rather than the amount of actual revenues. This formula may have worked at a time of much larger handles (which totaled $414 million statewide in 1986-87 and fell to $180 million in 1995-96), but now it was having a devastating effect on jai-alai operations, which might lose money and still have to pay taxes. Rates were lowered but the move still did not solve the problem.

Florida Gaming endured a difficult 1998. In February, the company agreed to sell the real estate of its Tampa Jai-Alai facility, which had been in business since 1953, for $8.3 million. Nevertheless, the company elected to retain the jai-alai license, which could still prove valuable in the event of casinos becoming legal in Florida. The price of Florida Gaming stock, which traded at a high of $17.25 in 1995, dropped below $1.35 in July 1998, shortly before the Miami Herald published a scathing recap of Collett's past business dealings. The article also questioned the relationship between Freedom Financial and Florida Gaming: "In recent years, money and property has flowed between Florida Gaming and Freedom Financial. The largest deal was last fall, when Freedom sold a Georgia real estate development called Tara Club Estates to Florida Gaming for $6.4 million." In response, Collett denied any impropriety but promised to sever financial ties between the companies as soon as he was able to finalize the sale of the Tampa Jai-Alai property and pay off some debts. The Miami Herald, however, was not alone in its criticism of the relationship between Freedom Financial and Florida Gaming. The NASDAQ also made note of the situation when announcing that Florida Gaming would be delisted in August 1998.

Florida Gaming in the New Century

Florida changed the tax laws so that jai-alai profits were taxed rather than the handle, but the move came too late to save Tampa Jai-Alai. In fact, the entire jai-alai industry was on the verge of collapse. In 1987, there had been 12 frontons operating in Florida, but by July 1998 there were only five, and Florida Gaming began looking to sell its Ocala operation. It was not until August 2000 that the company was able to complete a sale of the fronton. In the meantime, Florida Gaming lost over $2 million in 1998 but rebounded in 1999, posting a profit of more than $1.5 million.

Florida Gaming streamlined its business in 2000, operating just two jai-alai frontons, one in Fort Pierce for a summer season and one in Miami that operated year-round. Coupled with further tax breaks from the state, the company, and the sport of jai-alai, appeared to be stabilizing. The halcyon days were definitely in the past but jai-alai remained enough of a draw to stay alive, at least in Miami with its heavy influx of tourists. In addition, technology allowed jai-alai matches to be simulcast for wagering in 62 parimutuel sites in Florida as well as locations in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Mexico, Central America, and Austria. In February 2002, Florida Gaming signed an agreement to broadcast its Miami Jai-Alai matches over the Internet, using streaming video. World Gaming Services would also offer viewers gaming options. In addition to jai-alai, Florida Gaming continued to draw income from its poker and domino tables, as well as inter-track wagering. The company also retained its Tampa Jai-Alai license. It was likely that Florida Gaming would only use the license in the event that the state finally approved casino gambling. Until that time the company would have to be content with the limited possibilities of the jai-alai business and its poker tables.

Principal Subsidiaries: Florida Gaming Centers, Inc.; Tara Club Estates, Inc.

Principal Competitors: Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc.; Ocala Breeders; Florida Lottery.

Related information about Florida

pop (2000e) 15 982 400; area 151 934 km²/58 664 sq mi. State in SE USA, divided into 67 counties; the ‘Sunshine State’ or ‘Peninsular State’; discovered and settled by the Spanish in the 16th-c; ceded to Britain in 1763, and divided into East and West Florida; given back to Spain after the War of Independence, 1783; West Florida gained by the US in the Louisiana Purchase, 1803; East Florida purchased by the US, 1819; admitted as the 27th state of the Union, 1845; seceded, 1861; slavery abolished, 1865; re-admitted to the Union, 1868; capital, Tallahassee; other chief cities, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale; a long peninsula bounded W by the Gulf of Mexico and E by the Atlantic Ocean; rivers include the St Johns, Caloosahatchee, Apalachicola, Perdido, St Marys; C state has many lakes, notably L Okeechobee (fourth largest lake wholly within the USA); highest point in Walton County (105 m/345 ft); the Florida Keys Islands stretch in a line SW from the S tip of the state, all linked by a series of causeways; the NW is a gently rolling panhandle area, cut by deep swamps along the coast; the S is almost entirely covered by the Everglades; the SE coast is protected from the Atlantic by sandbars and islands, creating shallow lagoons and sandy beaches; a warm sunny climate, but occasional danger of hurricanes (eg widespread damage caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992); many famous resorts (Palm Beach, Miami Beach); the Everglades National Park, Walt Disney World entertainment park, John F Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral; the nation's greatest producer of citrus fruits; second largest producer of vegetables; sugar cane, tobacco, cattle and dairy products; processed foods, chemicals, electrical equipment, transportation equipment, wood products; phosphate and other minerals; one of the fastest-growing parts of the country; an important area for retirement homes; large Hispanic population (especially from Cuba).

references

Florida is a U.S. state located in the southeastern United States. It was named by Juan Ponce de León, who landed on the coast on April 2, 1513, during Pascua Florida (Spanish for "Flowery Easter," referring to the Easter season).

Geography

Florida is situated mostly on a large peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Straits of Florida. It is near the countries of the Caribbean, particularly the Bahamas and Cuba.

At 345 feet (105 m) above mean sea level, Britton Hill is the highest point in Florida and the lowest highpoint of any U.S. state. Lake County holds the highest point of peninsular Florida, Sugarloaf Mountain, at 312 feet (95 m).

Areas under control by the National Park Service include:

Big Cypress National Preserve, near Lake Okeechobee
Biscayne National Park, near Key Biscayne
Canaveral National Seashore, near Titusville
Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, in St. Augustine
De Soto National Memorial, in Bradenton
Dry Tortugas National Park, at Key West
Everglades National Park
Fort Caroline National Memorial, at Jacksonville
Fort Matanzas National Monument, in St. Augustine
Gulf Islands National Seashore, near Gulf Breeze
Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, in Jacksonville

See also List of Florida state parks

Boundaries

The state line begins in the Atlantic Ocean, traveling west, south, and north up the thalweg of the Saint Mary's River. At the origin of that river, it then follows a straight line nearly due west and slightly north, to the point where the confluence of the Flint River (from Georgia) and the Chattahoochee River (down the Alabama/Georgia line) used to form Florida's Apalachicola River. The seasons in Florida are actually determined more by precipitation than by temperature with mild to cool, relatively dry winters and autumns (the dry season) and hot, wet springs and summers (the wet season). The hottest temperature ever recorded in the state was 109 °F (43 °C), set on June 29 1931 in Monticello. The coldest was ?2 °F (?19 °C), on February 13 1899, just 25 miles (40 km) away, in Tallahassee. These thunderstorms, caused by collisions between airflow from the Gulf of Mexico and airflow from the Atlantic Ocean, pop up in the early afternoon and can bring heavy downpours, high winds, and sometimes tornadoes. The storm is believed to have been similar in composition to a hurricane, and even brought storm surges of six feet or more to regions of the Gulf coast.

Although some storms have formed out of season, hurricanes pose a threat during hurricane season, which lasts from June 1 to November 30. Hurricanes Charley (August 13), Frances (September 4?5), Ivan (September 16), and Jeanne (September 25?26) cumulatively cost the state's economy US$42 billion. Later, Hurricane Katrina (August 25) passed through South Florida and Hurricane Rita (September 20) swept through the Florida Keys. Hurricane Wilma made landfall in Florida in the early morning of October 24 as a Category 3 hurricane, with the storm's eye hitting near Cape Romano, just south of Marco Island, according to National Hurricane Center.

Florida was the site of the second costliest weather disaster in U.S. history, Hurricane Andrew, which caused more than US$25 billion in damage when it struck on August 24, 1992. In a long list of other infamous hurricane strikes are the 1926 Great Miami Hurricane, the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Donna in 1960, and Hurricane Opal in 1995.

Environmental issues

Florida is the fifth-largest producer of greenhouse gases among the 50 U.S. states. Much of Florida, being only a few feet above sea level now, would be underwater if the sea level rose dramatically due to the continued melting of glaciers, parts of the Antarctic ice shelf, or Greenland's cover of ice. Of the many indigenous people, the largest known were the Ais, the Apalachee, the Calusa, the Timucua and the Tocobago tribes. Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish conquistador, named Florida in honor of his "discovery" of the land on April 2 1513, during Pascua Florida, a Spanish term for the Easter season. French Huguenots founded Fort Caroline in modern-day Jacksonville in 1564, but this fort was conquered by forces from the new Spanish colony of St. Augustine the following year. The local leaders (caciques) demonstrated their loyalty to the Spanish by converting to Roman Catholicism and welcoming the Franciscan priests into their villages.

The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English colonies to the north and French colonies to the west. The English weakened Spanish power in the area by supplying their Creek Indian allies with firearms and urging them to raid the Timucuan and Apalachee client-tribes of the Spanish. On March 3 1845, Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America. On January 10 1861, before the formal outbreak of the Civil War, Florida seceded from the Union; On June 25, 1868, Florida's congressional
representation was restored. font-size: 95%;">

**Presidential elections results**
Year	Republican	Democratic
2004	52.10%3,964,522	47.09% 3,583,544
2000	48.85%2,912,790	48.84% 2,912,253
1996	42.32% 2,244,536	48.02%2,546,870
1992	40.89%2,173,310	39.00% 2,072,698
1988	60.87%2,618,885	38.51% 1,656,701
1984	65.32%2,730,350	34.66% 1,448,816
1980	55.52%2,046,951	38.50% 1,419,475
1976	46.64% 1,469,531	51.93%1,636,000
1972	71.91%1,857,759	27.80% 718,117
1968	40.53%886,804	30.93% 676,794
1964	48.85% 905,941	51.15%948,540
1960	51.51%795,476	48.49% 748,700

The basic structure, duties, function, and operations of the government of the State of Florida are defined and established by the Florida Constitution, which establishes the basic law of the state and guarantees various rights and freedoms of the people. The legislature enacts bills, which, if signed by the governor, become Florida Statutes.

The Florida Legislature is comprised of the Florida Senate, which has 40 members, and the Florida House of Representatives, which has 120 members. The current Governor of Florida is Republican Jeb Bush, brother of U.S. President George W. The Tampa area, once a major center of Democratic union support, is now almost evenly split between registered Republicans and Democrats, making it part of the important I-4 Corridor swing region. The Walt Disney World Resort, a mega-resort consisting of four theme parks, more than twenty hotels, water parks, shopping centers, and other attractions, is an important tourist attraction located in Lake Buena Vista. Together, Walt Disney World, and other theme park resorts such as Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld, are an important driver of the Central Florida economy.

Other major industries include citrus fruit and juice production, banking, and phosphate mining within the Bone Valley region. The state did not have a state minimum wage law until November 2, 2004, when voters passed a constitutional amendment establishing a state minimum wage and mandating that it be adjusted for inflation every six months.

Historically, Florida's economy was based upon cattle farming and agriculture (especially sugarcane, citrus, tomatoes, and strawberries). font-size: 95%;">

Historical populations
Census year	Population

1830	34,730
1840	54,477
1850	87,445
1860	140,424
1870	187,748
1880	269,493
1890	391,422
1900	528,542
1910	752,619
1920	968,470
1930	1,468,211
1940	1,897,414
1950	2,771,305
1960	4,951,560
1970	6,789,443
1980	9,746,324
1990	12,937,926
2000	15,982,378

Race and ancestry

The largest reported ancestries in the 2000 Census were German (11.8%), Irish (10.3%), English (9.2%), American (8%) and Italian (6.3%).factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=04000US12&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010

Before the American Civil War, when slavery was legal, and during the Reconstruction era that followed, African Americans made up nearly half of the state's population.fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/Historical Census Broswer at the University of Virginia (URL accessed 26 August 2006). Their proportion declined over the next century, as many moved north in the Great Migration while large numbers of northern whites moved to the state. Today, large concentrations of black residents can be found in northern Florida (notably in Jacksonville, Gainesville and Pensacola), the Tampa Bay area, and South Florida (where their numbers have been bolstered by significant immigration from Haiti and Jamaica).

Florida's Hispanic population includes large communities of Cuban Americans in Miami and Tampa, Puerto Ricans in Tampa and Orlando, and Central American migrant workers in inland West-Central and South Florida. The Hispanic community continues to grow more affluent and mobile: between the years of 2000 and 2004, Lee County in southwest Florida, which is largely suburban in character, had the fastest Hispanic population growth rate of any county in the United States.www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060309/NEWS01/603090396/1075

Whites of all ethnicities are present in all areas of the state. There is a large German population in Southwest Florida, a sizeable and historic Italian community in the Miami area, and white Floridians of longer-present generations in the culturally southern areas of inland and northern Florida. Haitian Creole is the third most spoken language at 2.2 percent, followed by German at 0.6 percent and Italian at 0.4 percent.

Article II, Section 9, of the Florida Constitution provides that "English is the official language of the State of Florida." Florida's current religious affiliations are shown in the table below:

Christian, 82%
- Protestant, 54%
  - Baptist, 19%
  - Methodist, 6%
  - Presbyterian, 4%
  - Episcopal, 3%
  - Lutheran, 3%
  - Pentecostal, 3%
  - Other Protestant, 16%
- Roman Catholic, 26%
- Other Christian, 2%
Jewish, 4%
Other Religions, 1%
Non-Religious, 13%

Education

Florida's public primary and secondary schools are administered by the Florida Department of Education.

Florida's public-school revenue per student and spending per $1000 of personal income usually rank in the bottom 25 percent of U.S. states. Governor Jeb Bush has been criticized by many Florida educators for a program that penalizes underperforming schools (as indicated by standardized tests, most prominently the FCAT) with fewer funding dollars. ^{www.sptimes.com/News/050801/State/Bush_s_trustees_mostl.shtml} In 2002, former governor and then U.S. Senator Bob Graham (Dem.) led a constitutional-amendment ballot referendum designed to restore the board-of-regents system. -->

Transportation

Highways

Florida's interstates, state highways and U.S. Highways are maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation.

Florida's interstate highway system contains 1,473 miles (2,371 km) of highway, and there are 9,934 miles (15,987 km) of non-interstate highway in the state, such as Florida state highways and U.S. Highways.

Florida's primary interstate routes include:

I-4, which bisects the state, connecting Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando, and Daytona Beach, having junctions with I-95 at Daytona Beach and I-75 at Tampa.
I-10, which traverses the panhandle, connecting Jacksonville, Lake City, Tallahassee and Pensacola, having junctions with I-95 at Jacksonville and I-75 at Lake City.
I-75, which enters the state near Lake City (45 miles west of Jacksonville) and continues southward through Gainesville, Ocala, Tampa's eastern suburbs, Bradenton, Sarasota, and Fort Myers to Naples, where it crosses the "Alligator Alley" as a toll road to Fort Lauderdale before turning southward and terminating in Hialeah/Miami Lakes having junctions with I-10 at Lake City and I-4 at Tampa.
I-95, which enters the state near Jacksonville and continues along the Atlantic Coast through Daytona Beach, Melbourne/Titusville, Palm Bay, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Port Saint Lucie, Stuart, West Palm Beach, and Ft. Lauderdale before terminating in Miami, having junctions with I-10 at Jacksonville and I-4 at Daytona Beach.

Florida's secondary interstate routes include:

I-110, a spur from I-10 into downtown Pensacola.
I-175, which connects I-275 to southern downtown St. Petersburg.
I-195, an extension of Miami's Airport Expressway (S.R. a spur eastward from I-95 to Miami Beach.
I-275, a sixty-mile (100 km)www.kurumi.com/roads/3di/i275.html westward loop from I-75 north of Ellenton, over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, through St. Petersburg, to Tampa International Airport and downtown Tampa, reconnecting with I-75 in Tampa's northern suburbs.
I-295, a partial beltway around Jacksonville that will loop completely around the city by 2007.
I-375, which connects I-275 to northern downtown St. Petersburg.
I-395, an extension of Miami's Dolphin Expressway (S.R. a spur eastward from I-95 to Miami Beach.
I-595, which connects I-75, I-95, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades.

Florida has several toll roads, totaling 515 miles (830 km) of the state highway system. Major toll roads include:

I-75, as it passes through the Everglades between Naples and Fort Lauderdale has been grandfathered as a toll road from its original construction as S.R. 84
Florida's Turnpike, which begins at Interstate 75 south of Ocala and continues southeast through Orlando, Port Saint Lucie, and south through the western suburbs of Fort Lauderdale and Miami to Homestead

For more information about the myriad secondary toll expressways in Florida, see articles detailing roads maintained by the Florida Turnpike Authority, the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, and the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority.

Intercity rail

In 2000, voters approved a constitutional amendment to construct a high-speed rail system to interconnect Florida's major cities. The Florida High Speed Rail Authority, originally formed to implement the high-speed-rail amendment, has vowed to find a way to implement the system without the amendment.

Amtrak service exists in Florida: Sanford, in Greater Orlando, is the southern terminus of the Amtrak Auto Train, which originates at Lorton, Virginia, south of Washington, DC. Orlando is also the eastern terminus of the Sunset Limited, which travels across the southern United States via New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio to its western terminus of Los Angeles. Florida is served by two additional Amtrak trains (the Silver Star and the Silver Meteor), which operate between New York City and Miami. Miami has an automated guideway people-mover system, as well as a 22-mile metro system, and most cities have bus service.

Airports

Florida's major international airports, which processed more than 15 million passengers in 2005, are Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (22,390,285), Miami International Airport (31,008,453), Orlando International Airport (34,128,048) and Tampa International Airport (19,045,390).

Secondary airports, with annual passenger traffic exceeding 5 million in 2005, include Jacksonville International Airport (5,741,652), Palm Beach International Airport (West Palm Beach) (7,014,237) and Southwest Florida International Airport (Fort Myers) (7,518,169).

Other smaller, regional airports with commercial service (with passengers served in 2005, where available) include those at Daytona Beach (615,841), Fort Walton Beach, Gainesville (345,788), Key West, Melbourne (466,367) ,Naples, Panama City (382,551), Pensacola (1,638,605), Sarasota-Bradenton (1,337,571), St. Petersburg-Clearwater (596,510) and Tallahassee (1,129,947). Sanford (1,649,237) is primarily served by international charter airlines.2005 North America Airports Traffic Statistics URL retrieved September 15, 2006

Metropolitan areas

Florida has nineteen Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

	Metropolitan Statistical Areas	2005 Population
	Cape Coral-Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area	549,442
	Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area	494,649
	Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin Metropolitan Statistical Area	188,939
	Gainesville Metropolitan Statistical Area	256,985
	Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area	1,277,763
	Lakeland Metropolitan Statistical Area	541,840
	Miami-Ft.Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area	5,422,200
	Naples-Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area	317,788
	Ocala Metropolitan Statistical Area	304,926
	Orlando-Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area	1,861,707
	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area	531,970
	Panama City-Lynn Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area	161,721
	Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area	439,877
	Port St. Lucie-Fort Pierce Metropolitan Statistical Area	381,033
	Punta Gorda Metropolitan Statistical Area	154,030
	Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice Metropolitan Statistical Area	673,035
	Sebastian-Vero Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area	130,043
	Tallahassee Metropolitan Statistical Area	334,886
	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area	2,589,637

Important cities and towns

City Population > 700,000

Jacksonville

City Population > 300,000

Miami
Tampa

City Population > 200,000

Hialeah
Orlando
St. Petersburg

City Population > 100,000

Cape Coral
Clearwater
Coral Springs
Fort Lauderdale
Gainesville
Hollywood
Miami Gardens
Pembroke Pines
Miramar
Palm Bay
Port Saint Lucie
Pompano Beach
Tallahassee

City Population > 75,000

Boca Raton
Brandon
Davie
Deltona
Kendall
Lakeland
Melbourne
Miami Beach
Plantation
Sunrise
West Palm Beach

City Population > 50,000

Boynton Beach
Bradenton
Daytona Beach
Deerfield Beach
Delray Beach
Fort Myers
Fountainbleau
Kendale Lakes
Kissimmee
Largo
Lauderhill
Margate
North Miami
North Miami Beach
Palm Coast
Palm Harbor
Pensacola
Sarasota
Spring Hill
Tamarac
Tamiami
Town 'n' Country
Weston

City Population > 25,000

Altamonte Springs
Aventura
Apopka
Bartow
Bonita Springs
Coconut Creek
Cooper City
Coral Gables
De Land
Dunedin

East Lake
Egypt Lake-Leto
Fort Pierce
Greater Carrollwood
Greenacres
Hallandale Beach
Homestead
Jupiter
Kendall West
Key West
Lake Magdalene
Lake Worth
Lauderdale Lakes
Lehigh Acres
North Fort Myers
North Lauderdale
Ocala
Ocoee
Oakland Park
Ormond Beach
Oviedo
Palm Beach Gardens
Panama City
Pinellas Park
Plant City
Port Orange
Port Charlotte
Riviera Beach
Royal Palm Beach
Sanford
South Fort Myers
Titusville
University
Wellington
Westchester
Winter Haven
Winter Park
Winter Springs

Professional sports teams

Club	Sport	League
Jacksonville Jaguars	Football	National Football League
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Football	National Football League
Miami Dolphins	Football	National Football League
Orlando Magic	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Miami Heat	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Tampa Bay Lightning	Ice hockey	National Hockey League
Florida Panthers	Ice hockey	National Hockey League
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Florida Marlins	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Orlando Predators	Arena football	Arena Football League
Tampa Bay Storm	Arena football	Arena Football League
Brevard County Manatees	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Clearwater Threshers	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Daytona Cubs	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Dunedin Blue Jays	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Fort Myers Miracle	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Jacksonville Suns	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Jupiter Hammerheads	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Lakeland Tigers	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Sarasota Reds	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
St. Lucie Mets	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Tampa Yankees	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Palm Beach Cardinals	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Vero Beach Dodgers	Baseball	Minor League BaseballFlorida State League
Miami FC	Soccer	USL First Division
Ajax Orlando Prospects	Soccer	USL Premier Development League
Bradenton Academics	Soccer	USL Premier Development League
Central Florida Kraze	Soccer	USL Premier Development League
Cocoa Expos	Soccer	USL Premier Development League
Palm Beach Pumas	Soccer	USL Premier Development League
Bradenton Athletics	Soccer	W-League
Central Florida Krush	Soccer	W-League
Cocoa Expos	Soccer	W-League
Central Florida Strikers	Soccer	Women?s Premier Soccer League
Miami Surf	Soccer	Women?s Premier Soccer League
Orlando Falcons	Soccer	Women?s Premier Soccer League
Palm Beach United	Soccer	Women?s Premier Soccer League
South Florida Breeze	Soccer	Women?s Premier Soccer League
Tampa Bay United	Soccer	Women?s Premier Soccer League
Florida Everblades	Ice hockey	East Coast Hockey League
Florida Seals	Ice hockey	Southern Professional Hockey League
Jacksonville Barracudas	Ice hockey	Southern Professional Hockey League
Pensacola Ice Pilots	Ice hockey	East Coast Hockey League
Orlando, Florida (Name TBA)	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Palm Beach Imperials	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Pensacola Aviators	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Jacksonville Jam	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Tampa Bay Strong Dogs	Basketball	American Basketball Association

Spring training

Florida is the traditional home for Major League Baseball spring training, with teams informally organized into the "Grapefruit League." As of 2004, Florida hosts the following major league teams for spring training:

Club	Location
Atlanta Braves	Walt Disney World
Baltimore Orioles	Fort Lauderdale

Chronology

Key Dates:
1976: Lexicon Corp. is formed.
1993: Freedom Financial Corp. acquires Lexicon.
1994: Fort Pierce jai-alai facility is acquired; the company changes its name to Florida Gaming Corporation.
1996: Three more jai-alai facilities are acquired.
1998: Tampa Jai-Alai is sold.
2000: Ocala Jai-Alai is sold.

Additional topics

Company HistorySports Organizations & Sports Teams

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