The compact between the state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe could be rescued without a special session, said Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano. Although a new compact would require the legislature’s approval, Galvano said Governor Rick Scott could sign a new agreement and lawmakers could ratify it as late as January, when they return for the 2016 regular session. “Scott could modify the existing agreement to expand the banked card games unilaterally, subject to ratification by the legislature,” Galvano said.
Scheduled to expire July 31, a provision of the 2010 compact gives the Seminoles exclusive rights to operate banked card games, such as blackjack, at five of its seven casinos in exchange for $1 billion over five years. The compact also gives the tribe 90 days after the expiration date to shut down the card games. However, the Seminoles have questioned if they are required to end the card games without a new agreement.
Galvano, who helped write the compact, said he does not believe the legislature would have to authorize a new deal before the 90-day period ends for the agreement to be in effect. He said the 90-day provision was included when the original compact was negotiated in anticipation of railing to reach a new agreement before the expiration date. The slots and poker portion of the original 2010 agreement runs another 15 years, through 2030.
Earlier the tribe rejected an offer from state Senator Rob Bradley, chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, that would have extended the current compact for one year, giving both sides more time to work out a compromise. In a letter to Scott and legislative leaders, Seminole Tribal Chairman James Billie formally requested a return to negotiations in good faith. “The certainty provided by a multi-year agreement to renew the banked card games would allow the tribe to move forward with plans to invest over $1.6 billion in capital improvements and hire thousands of new employees,” Billie wrote. The tribe is considering a significant hotel expansion at its Tampa casino, among other projects. However, Bradley, who had met informally with the tribe this spring, said, “I consider the letter to be a non-event.”
Any effort to renew or expand the tribe’s card games would have to accommodate the state’s parimutuels, Galvano said. “There has to be things of interest to other industry participants in order to get everyone’s buy-in. That doesn’t mean that everyone gets what they want completely. They didn’t the last time. But it is an opportunity to look at the industry as a whole. I call it ‘the Mary Poppins rule.’ Sometimes it takes a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down,” he said.
State Rep. Jared Moskowitz, the House Democrats’ point man on gambling, noted, “It’s easy to say let it expire and let’s renegotiate a new deal. But that means at some point in time it has to happen. And all people keep doing is moving the goal post. Now we’re hearing the goalpost is really January. It’s not July. It’s not October. It’s now January. At some point in time it’s going to be apparent to everybody that we’re either going to have to do something or that there is no will in the legislature to do it.”
