The Florida Gaming Commission has pushed back a vote on whether to approve the pending sale of the Magic City Casino in Miami to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, an Alabama-based tribe. Approval would include a license transfer.
The seller is the Havenick family. The purchaser is Wind Creek Miami LLC, a business arm of the tribe. The purchase price was undisclosed.
The commission delayed the vote because it needed to redact sensitive information from an application to transfer the casino’s parimutuel permit to the tribe. State law makes trade secret information exempt from the state’s public record sunshine law. Nevertheless, the commission wanted to make as much information as possible available to the public.
Chairman John MacIver declared, “It’s purely out of the Sunshine Act,” adding, “We can’t take any action as a collegial body without an opportunity for the public to provide meaningful input.” This is one of the commission’s first acts since it was established last year.
The decision was applauded by the activist group No Casinos, Inc., which had asked for more time to look at the deal.
However, John Lockwood, an attorney for the family, warned that much delay could imperil the deal going through. “I would implore the commission to not delay this transaction into next year because I do have fears as to what that would involve for this entire deal,” he said.
He added, “As everyone’s aware, the global economic markets are volatile, to say the least. If we have this issue beyond this commission meeting and in the next calendar year, I don’t know what that means for this transaction.”
WLRN reported that it was likely the commission could approve of the sale later this month.
The Havenick family, through West Flagler Associates, Ltd., has owned the casino since 1931, when it was a dog racing park. Dog racing is today illegal in Florida. In 2009 it became the Magic City Casino. The Poarch Band operates Wind Creek Hospitality in Alabama, as well as Wind Creek in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which it operates as a commercial casino, as the Magic City transaction would be.
A spokesman for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which operates six casinos in the Sunshine State, called on the commission to exercise more transparency and review of regulations governing slot machines. State law says slots can’t be transferred from owner to owner, but the law is often ignored.
Marc Dunbar, whose law firm represents the Seminoles, commented, “It’s not about necessarily having a bunch of people looking over the staff, it’s just so that the public knows what the vetting went through and so people that are coming in next know what the process is and what the statutes mean.”
The Havenick family and the Seminole Tribe have been at swords’ point for years. Most recently, the owners of the Magic City Casino sued over the tribal state gaming compact the Seminoles concluded with Governor Ron DeSantis, that, among other things, gives the tribe a monopoly on sports betting. A federal judge has ruled that the compact violated federal law. The case is under appeal.
