Florida Senate President Bill Galvano said he plans to introduce sports betting legislation in the upcoming session that starts March 5. Previously he directed a Senate committee to study sports betting and prepare draft legislation. “We already have sports betting in Florida. It’s just not regulated and we are not collecting and sharing revenues from that activity,” Galvano said. The measure also would cover other gambling-related topics, he said, including “more a comprehensive impact on the pari-mutuels, from tax rates to hours of operation, things of that nature that we can still address.”
Galvano also said new legislation would “stabilize and present new terms or modified terms to the existing Seminole Compact. Under that compact, the tribe has exclusive rights to offer blackjack at its casinos plus slots outside of South Florida, in exchange for sharing a portion of revenue with the state. That will amount to $3 billion over a 7-year period, including $200 million in the last fiscal year and an estimated $380 million in the current fiscal year. Although the latest compact agreement expired and the tribe and state were unable to come to terms for a new agreement, the tribe “in good faith” continues to share revenue with the state. Galvano helped draft the original compact in 2010.
A new twist this year is voters’ approval of the Voter Control of Gambling Amendment last November. It means any new gambling legislation may not become law until Florida voters approve it. John Sowinski, president of Voters In Charge, the group behind the successful gambling amendment, said, “Only Florida voters, by constitutional initiative, have the authority to authorize any form of casino gambling, including sports betting. Any legislation that ignores Amendment 3 and its overwhelming voter support is patently unconstitutional and an affront to the will of the people.”
To address that, Galvano said, “Probably the most prudent course would be to run a legislative authorization of sports betting concurrently with some sort of statewide referendum, sort of a belt-and-suspenders type of approach. Because I do believe, if we just authorize it, we’re going to have some challenges and some litigation that will fall.”
Observers believe the Seminoles may ask for more in the next round of compact negotiations, such as being allowed to offer sports betting and adding more table games, including craps and roulette. Galvano noted, “They have made a tremendous investment, billions of dollars in their facilities”—including a new $1.5 billion hotel and entertainment complex at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, site of the 450-foot guitar-shaped hotel tower—”but yet they still lack craps and roulette games that are traditionally in casinos of that magnitude. I know they would like to see that. They have an interest, as I understand, in offering sports betting and they do want stability because they can operate and work with their financiers in a more stable environment and they can point to an agreement that is not in flux, so to speak.”
Seminole Tribe spokesman Gary Bitner previously said “stability has always been the Tribe’s primary goal.”
Parimutuel lobbyist Nick Iarossi commented that getting lawmakers and the tribe to agree on a compact deal “is no easy task, but the last guy to successfully navigate a compact through the legislative process was Bill Galvano. He understands what all the involved parties need to achieve in order to get a deal done that benefits the state. On top of that, he has a great working relationship with the House Speaker Jose Oliva. So the recipe for success is there.”
