Seminole Tribe of Florida Chief James Billie recently informed Governor Rick Scott and legislative leaders that the tribe is prepared to stop its payments to the state and sue in federal court unless the state renews a provision of the Seminole compact that will expire this month. Under the deal, the Seminoles were granted exclusivity for blackjack and other games at five of its casinos in return for giving the state no less than billion over five years.
But negotiations between the state and the tribe are going nowhere. The rules give the tribe until the end of October to wind down its blackjack and other banked card games. But the tribe has said it has no plans to stop offering the games. Tribal officials believe the state violated the terms of the compact by allowing electronic blackjack games and player-banked poker games to be played in card rooms at horse and dog tracks in Florida.
By refusing to renegotiate, the state risks losing $200 million this year and millions more in the future. Terms of the compact also have kept mega-casinos out of south Florida. In the last legislative session, a bill that would allowed the destination casinos failed to win support, but so did a bill that would have extended the Seminole deal for another year.
The tribe has announced without a compact it will not move forward on $1.6 billion in capital improvements, including a major hotel expansion at its Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa.
Marc Dunbar, a partner at the law firm of Jones Walker in Tallahassee, which represents a Gretna parimutuel that wants to operate slot machines, said the state and tribe most likely will try to work out an agreement and avoid going to court. He said gaming will come up in legislative committee discussions starting in September or in a special session at the end of October.
