Statewide voters don't support South Floridians making a choice to expand slot machines at Miami-Dade and Broward parimutuels, according to a poll released Thursday.
The telephone poll of 400 likely registered voters by InsiderAdvantage, a nonpartisan polling group from Atlanta, provides fodder for opponents of the initiative, including a group arriving in Dania Beach on Sunday on the last day of a seven-city statewide tour.
Florida voters on Nov. 2 will decide if Broward and Miami-Dade voters can choose to add slot machines at South Florida dog tracks, horse tracks and jai-alai frontons.
The poll found that 44 percent of those surveyed oppose the measure, while 31 percent oppose it and 25 percent are undecided.
If next month's referendum passes, Broward and Miami-Dade voters would have local referendums on whether to allow the slot machines at gambling venues in their counties.
''But you have a strong enough undecided vote who could be moved to some extent to make this an amendment that is still pretty much up for grabs,'' said Matt Towrey, chairman of InsiderAdvantage.
The group that successfully placed the issue on the ballot painted a brighter picture for slot-machine supporters.
''We're very confident with results that are a lot better than that,'' said Earl Bender, campaign manager for Floridians For A Level Playing Field.
The group has done its own polling but is not releasing results, Bender said.
Slot-machine supporters, with $13 million in campaign contributions bankrolled primarily by local tracks, on Monday began airing television commercials extolling how slot machine revenue would help statewide education.
A study commissioned by the initiative's supporters estimates at least $438 million of taxed slot-machine revenue would go toward education in its first year.
The Florida School Boards Association conducted its own study showing Broward schools would get about $46.7 million of that money, Miami-Dade schools $65 million and Palm Beach County schools just under $30 million.
Both the Broward and Miami-Dade teachers' unions have endorsed the amendment.
Anti-gambling representatives and animal activists, led by Massachusetts-based Grey2K USA and Florida's No Casinos, have toured the state in the last week to voice their opposition to the initiative. They'll be at the Humane Society of Broward County, 2070 Griffin Rd. in Dania Beach, from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
In addition to an increase in crime and gambling addiction, opponents say the measure would support an industry with a history of mistreating animals. They also are skeptical about the how much revenue would actually stream in.
Floridians have voted against any expansion of gambling three times since 1978.