After months of work on opposing gambling measures, Florida House and Senate negotiators almost found a compromise but reached a stalemate, and the bill collapsed just before the session ended May 5. State Rep. José Felix Díaz said because of too many unresolved issues, “We just couldn’t get it across the finish line.” However, the main concern was how to handle the eight counties where voters approved slot machines at dog horse racetracks.
The failure of the legislation also means the state will not get a guaranteed $3 billion over seven years from the Seminole Tribe in exchange for allowing craps and roulette in the tribe’s seven casinos. The Seminole compact remains in limbo; the tribe’s exclusive right to offer blackjack expired in 2015 but a federal judge ruled the state violated the agreement by allowing parimutuels to offer games similar to blackjack. The judge said the Seminoles could offer the games through 2030. The state appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but that appeal has been on hold while lawmakers considered legislation that could have affected the agreement.
As a show of good faith, the tribe still is making monthly payments of around $20 million to the state. Negron said about $200 million in Seminole money is being held in the state’s general fund but is not marked for spending. Meanwhile tribal attorney Barry Richard of Greenberg Traurig said the tribe would “react accordingly” to the failure of gambling negotiations. Richard said withholding the payments was “an option” if the state fails to “take action to shut those designated player games down.”
Regarding the issue of the eight counties, Diaz said, “The House has stuck to its original position of not expanding to the eight referendum counties, and the Senate has continued to ask for different variations of expansion in those counties. We have a very difficult time with the concept of massive expansion of gaming. The fear is that you have counties that are very small that are not very populated and they are voting and that affects their neighboring counties. As something as important in a state that has a history of allowing everybody to vote for expansion of slots, I think the House has consistently said that if you really do want gaming in these counties, maybe every voter in the state should agree.”
Prior to the collapse of negotiations, Senate President Joe Negron said the issue goes beyond gambling expansion to respect for the will of the voters in those eight counties who approved having slots. Negron said, “They voted for it. They’re the same people who sent us here and I feel strongly that a gaming bill has to respect their decision to allow more gaming opportunity. If we can resolve that issue, then I think everything else can fall into place.” Voters passed a statewide referendum to allow slot machines in Miami-Dade and Broward but since then no statewide vote has been taken for the other counties where the referendums passed. The eight referendum counties are Brevard, Duval, Gadsden, Lee, Hamilton, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Washington. Voters in those counties approved referendums authorizing slot machines, but state regulators and Attorney General Pam Bondi said the tracks have no legal authority to add them.
The demise of the gaming bill also ends—for now—talk of another casino in Miami, specifically one developed by Malaysia-based Genting on the former site of the Miami Herald. Díaz said the House had been open to allowing a casino in Miami, but Miami-Dade voters would have had to approve it. “My goal was always to protect Miami-Dade County and though this bill is dead, there was never a time when I felt like we would not give the residents of Miami-Dade a voice in the process by referendum,” Díaz said. Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado repeated his statement that he wants to prevent gaming establishments from opening downtown and Miami commissioners said they will change the city’s zoning laws to prohibit any kind of gambling establishment from opening in the city.
John Sowinski, president of the anti-casino group No Casinos, called the negotiations over a Miami casino “legislative sausage making.” He said, “For many other issues there is virtue in seeking compromise. But when it comes to gambling policy, legislators face a different problem. Allowing even some gambling expansion inevitably leads to exponentially more gambling than anticipated.” He stated, “In this case no deal is better than a bad deal. No deal keeps Florida’s gambling footprint intact, whereas a bad deal brings the increases in crime and social costs that accompany gambling, and puts Florida’s multibillion-dollar family-friendly tourism brand at risk.”
Another casualty of the gambling legislation meltdown is daily fantasy sports legislation. The bill would have legalized and regulated DFS operations in the state. In a surprise move, the Florida Senate voted 36-0 on H7047, which was amended to clarify the legality of paid-entry fantasy sports and the authorization of pull-tab machines at veterans’ organizations. The legislation was sent to the Florida House. Several other bills are pending but there’s not much hope that any agreements will be reached.
Parimutuels that hoped to decouple horse and dog racing and jai alai from other forms of gambling also were disappointed in the outcome of the measure.
State Senator Bill Galvano said certain gambling questions most likely will be decided by the courts. The Florida Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment giving voters the “exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling.” However, in another pending case, the court will decide whether only Broward and Miami-Dade counties can host slots facilities.
Above all, the high court ruling expected soon in the Gadsden County case could have the most impact. County voters approved allowing slot machines at the small Gretna Racing track but the state would not issue a license. If the court favors the track, slots would be allowed there—and in the other counties that have held referendums–without legislative approval. “This definitely has the potential of having the courts set the policy,” Galvano said. Diaz said if the state Supreme Court approves slot machines in Gadsden and the other seven counties, legislators may hold a special session.
