The Senate Regulated Industries Committee approved the bill by 7-3 in Monday's vote, an amendment was added to ensure that residents of any county would have the final say in a referendum as far as new casinos potentially being built there.

Republic sponsors introduced the bill, which will create a state agency called the Florida State Gaming Commission to license, regulate and enforce gambling throughout Florida.

The ultimate goal is to award three gambling licenses for new casinos to be built in south Florida's Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The resort-style casinos (similar in design to huge US casinos in Las Vegas) would require a minimum $2 billion investment for the companies awarded the licenses, as well as a $50 million one-time license payment, annual renewal fees of $2 million, and a a 10% tax on gross gambling revenues.

Various gambling operators have shown strong interest in competing for the licenses and development projects, including Genting and Las Vegas Sands - global casino groups that operate huge resort style casinos in the US, Singapore, and Macau.

"We're pretty pleased with this 7-3 vote, it's a good start to get this thing going," Nick Iarossi, a Tallahassee-based lobbyist for Las Vegas Sands said in a recent interview.

"Our goal is to get it through the committees and get it to a floor vote," he said, with hopes that it could become law in 2012 during the current legislative session.

Several other US states are considering similar initiatives to expand their gambling operations or as is the case in New York and Massachusetts, build their first official casinos not on Indian land. State budget shortfalls and persistent high unemployment rates continue to fuel the push for the expansion of casinos, which can bring in additional tax revenues and create thousands of new jobs for residents as well.