Another hit to South Florida gambling: Dania Jai-Alai laid off about a half-dozen people, including poker room manager Frank Risi, officials confirmed today.

Business has been slow at the fronton. Dania can put in slots similar to other Broward pari-mutuels, such as Gulfstream, the Isle and Mardi Gras, but parent company Boyd Gaming has held off, citing the state's 50 percent tax as too burdensome. If the state dropped it to 35 percent, they'd likely rebuild the place and do it up right.

Assistant GM Marty Fleischman said Boyd Gaming made the cuts, as every business is having to do everywhere.

"Business is just down so much," he said. "We've never experienced this, either in the economy or in parimutuels." The Isle, Mardi Gras and Gulfstream also have trimmed staff in recent months.

Dania's card room business is about $100,000 a month, about one-sixth of Mardi Gras and Gulfstream and about one-tenth of what Palm Beach Kennel and the Isle do. Then there's the Seminole Indian casinos, which don't release their figures, but the nearby Hard Rock is the dominant spot in south and central Broward, if not all of South Florida.

Dania's jai-alai revenues also are minuscule.

On a related note (at this point I can't nail down how related), general manager John Knox, who was at the fronton for 37 years, retired. I have an email out to him for a comment. When a guy spends that much time in any job, you have figure he did some good things, and poker players I talked to said he was always there.

Human resources director Dave Winslow is the new GM, Fleischman said.