In Florida, no House or Senate committees have considered any gambling legislation for the upcoming session that starts January 12 and ends in March. Still, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said, “Is the clock running? Yes. Is it getting late in the game? Yes. Is it going to be a very challenging issue to pass out of the legislature? Yes. That’s just the reality of where we are. Can it be done? Certainly.”
At issue are who, what and where regarding gambling. Governor Rick Scott has negotiated a proposed compact with the Seminole Tribe allowing slots and blackjack, plus craps and roulette, at most of their casinos, in exchange for $3 billion over seven years. However state Senator Oscar Brynon, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, noted, “Right now, I don’t know that the compact does enough to galvanize enough Democrats to get the votes.” Seminole Gaming Chief Executive Officer James Allen said if the compact is approved by the legislature, the tribe would invest $1.8-$2 billion in non-gaming amenities, creating up to 10,000 construction jobs and 4,500 permanent jobs.
Parimutuels in Broward and Miami-Dade counties have slots but want blackjack. Scott’s proposal would permit slots in Palm Beach County but not in Brevard, Gadsden, Hamilton, Lee and Washington counties where voters have approved them in local referendums; that issue is before the state Supreme Court which will consider if legislative approval is necessary.
Crisafulli said the slots issue is about “fairness and equity.” He asked, “Are you going to create a level playing field or are you not? Are you going to pick winners and losers? That’s a decision we have to make. There’s a reality to vote counts. There’s a reality to understanding that there’s an interest in these communities for some of these folks to have parimutuels with slot machines because they passed a referendum.”
Decoupling, which would allow dog racetracks to end racing and offer card rooms or slots, is another major issue. House Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, the House’s lead negotiator on the compact, noted, “I think that everyone can kind of agree that this is an area that complicates the votes for people. There are people that really want greyhound decoupling, but they might also equally hate something else that’s in it somewhere else and might butt up against the bill because they don’t get everything that they want. I don’t think there’s a single person that, no matter how you craft this bill, is going to be 100 percent happy with it. I think the question they’re going to have to ask themselves is, ‘Can I live with the things I don’t like and the things I like about this bill in totality?’”
Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano said, “That’s going to be a challenge this session, bringing all of that together to be able to have the requisite number of votes in each chamber. Then add to that the anxiety of timing, because when these issues open up and close, the entities that are interested don’t know when they’ll have another opportunity.”
Meanwhile, a new Tampa Bay Times/10News WTSP poll showed Tampa Bay residents are split on expanding casino gambling but most want fantasy sports websites to stay in business. The poll surveyed 605 registered voters in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Results indicated 45 percent of respondents supported expanded gambling and 44 percent opposed it; 11 percent were undecided. The poll also showed 52 percent of voters age 18-54 supported expanded gambling, with 36 percent opposed; 55 percent of those age 55 or older opposed expansion. And 51 percent of men supported expanded gambling while 51 percent of women opposed it.
President of the anti-gambling group NoCasinos.org, John Sowinski said he found the poll results encouraging. “A tie score is hardly a mandate to expand gambling. If anything, that is a mandate to maintain the status quo,” he said.
Regarding daily fantasy sports, 64 percent want the websites to remain available as they are or with more regulation. Only 18 percent of respondents want them banned.
Florida lobbyist Brian Ballard, who represents the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, said, “It’s heartening to see overwhelming support for daily fantasy sports. It just shows that people want to be able to play fantasy sports. It can’t hurt a politician to be supportive of gaming in a smart and reasoned way.”
In fact, state Rep. Matt Gaetz has proposed legislation that would authorize fantasy sports sites. His bill would charge websites like FanDuel and DraftKings $500,000 each to operate in Florida and $100,000 annually, and it states the sports sites are games of skill, not gambling. Gaetz noted, “One in every seven Floridians plays some sort of fantasy sports. The status of the law today makes these people criminals. My sense is if 7 million people are doing something, and they aren’t hurting anyone, then I’m not sure it should be a crime. I think a substantial number of Floridians don’t appreciate the government making decisions on their recreational behavior. They don’t want to live in a nanny state.”
Tallahassee lawyer and gaming law specialist Marc Dunbar said the wording of the poll may have led to misleading results. He said FanDuel and DraftKings advertise heavily which could reinforce an assumption that they must be operating legally. People “assume it’s legal because it’s being advertised. If it wasn’t legal, then they think someone would have shut them down,” Dunbar said. He added if voters had been told that some consider the websites as gambling activity, he said, “Then I guarantee you would have gotten a different answer.”
