By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
The Florida Gaming Commission will weigh in Tuesday morning on whether Bronson can enforce its ordinance barring gambling within the city or if the law doesn’t apply to the machines in a local Jiffy Food Store.
Town Manager Susan Beaudet told the Bronson Town Council Monday she will take part in an online conference with the gaming commission to clarify if the local ordinance applies to the gaming machines in the Jiffy Store.
She said two other convenience stores, the Noble Food Store on the southeast end of town, and Tony’s Whistle Stop near Capital City Bank, removed their gaming machines when the town wrote a letter in December ordering the machines taken out.
Stoney Smith of Hudson Foods, owner of the Jiffy Store, took a different approach. He hired attorney Kelly Mathis and refused to remove gaming machines from his new Jiffy Store at the corner of U.S. 27A and State Road 24, saying the town has no authority to remove the machines under state law.
“We got a letter back from Kelly Mathis saying you can’t touch us,” Beaudet said. “He said you can’t have an ordinance that’s stricter than the state basically, because the state allows for gambling and the town can’t have an ordinance that says you can’t have gambling. That’s their argument.”
The town adopted an anti-gaming ordinance at about the same time Chiefland had a problem with internet cafes springing up all over town. The Chiefland City Commission got fed up with the cafes. The Chiefland Police Department conducted a big sweep through town, closing all the gambling sites and confiscating their equipment. This was several years ago.
Chiefland, Bronson, and Williston adopted similar ordinances aimed at keeping gambling out of their cities.
Beaudet said gaming machines are allowed in Bronson if the player can’t get a payout like a gift card or something like that, but she said the machines in the Jiffy Store have a payout. She wasn’t sure what type of payout. The gaming commission will decide if the machines are legally allowed in the town.
“If it’s not tied to a payout, you can have it, but if it’s tied to a payout – gift cards or whatever gets spit out of the machine, you can’t have it,” Beaudet said.
She said the original complaint about the gaming machines came from the company that installed a smoke shop in their store on the southeast end of town, the Noble Food Store.
“They wanted them. We said you can’t have them and they said, well, Stoney has them,” Beaudet said. “We also had a call from someone who wanted to bring a business into town and wanted the machines and we said the same thing, you can’t have them. They said the same thing, Stoney has them, so I sent a letter back in December.”
As a result of the legal questions surrounding the gaming machines, Town Attorney Steven Warm sent a letter to the Florida Attorney General asking for clarification on gaming laws. The attorney general kicked the case to the Florida Gaming Commission.
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Town of Bronson Meeting March 6, 2023; Posted March 6, 2023
