Las Vegas-scale resort casinos in South Florida are a dead issue for at least another year.
Lack of political support has prompted Dana Young, majority leader of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, to rewrite a bill she introduced at the start of the legislative session to scrap a provision calling for two casinos in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Supporters in and out of the legislature have been trying for years to open the state’s popular southeastern coast to casinos, and industry giants Genting Group and Las Vegas Sands have lobbied heavily for the chance to invest, only to see a succession of proposals defeated by a coalition of conservative upstate lawmakers and corporate heavyweights such as Disney and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
Young’s rewritten bill, a “final consensus product,” as she termed it, has whittled her original 300-page measure to 60 pages, although it still would allow greyhound tracks to offer poker and other forms of gaming even if they discontinue live racing, a controversial issue that has failed to clear legislative muster in the past.
However, the new bill does not address the touchy negotiations with the powerful Seminole Indian Tribe on a new five-year Class III compact to replace the one due to expire this summer. The Seminoles, owners of the large and highly profitable Hard Rock casinos in Hollywood and Tampa, have been airing television ads and pursuing an aggressive public relations and lobbying campaign to persuade legislators to maintain the current deal, which was negotiated in 2010 and grants the tribe a monopoly on house-banked card games such as blackjack at five of its seven venues in exchange for payments to the state that have totaled more than $1 billion to date.
Republican Governor Rick Scott attempted to strike a new deal with the tribe last year, but the talks collapsed in the final days of the legislative session. This year, Scott has left negotiations up to lawmakers, who must approve any agreement between the state and the tribe.
The casinos proposed in Young’s original bill, together with a provision to further expand gaming in the state by allowing slot machines at tracks in Lee and Palm Beach counties, would have ended the compact for all intents and purposes, a course insiders in Tallahassee say isn’t palatable politically, especially with the legislature set to adjourn on May 1 and the House and Senate deadlocked over a $5 billion budget disagreement concerning health care. The bill does, however, allow the county commissioners in South Florida the ability to hold referendums on the issue of large integrated resorts in their communities. But even if the voters agree, the legislature would still have to act.
What is more likely is that the compact talks will be extended under the status quo for another year, which is what Sen. Rob Bradley proposed last week.
Bradley, who chairs the Republican-controlled Senate’s Regulated Industries Committee, said the negotiations—which include a new pitch by the Seminoles for permission to offer live roulette and craps—began in earnest only in the last few weeks.
Extending the current agreement for another year also would avoid potentially costly and drawn-out litigation with the tribe, whose lawyers have raised questions about whether the tribe would have to forego their table game monopoly even if no deal were reached.
“I think this is the prudent thing to do for the people of Florida at this point in time,” Bradley said. “It allows us to continue with the status quo until we get a deal that makes sense for the state of Florida and makes sense for the tribe.”
Young countered that she hopes her revised bill will be taken up in committee in the House, setting the stage for another possible showdown between the two chambers over competing plans.
