The multibillion-dollar question of gambling’s future in Florida will have to wait at least until the fall for any kind of resolution.
A trial in federal court to decide whether the Seminole Tribe can offer blackjack at its casinos, initially scheduled for this summer, has been postponed at the request of attorneys for the state and the tribe. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle has scheduled hearings for October.
The Seminoles filed a lawsuit last year after key portions of a five-year agreement with the state expired. At the end of 2015, Governor Rick Scott had reached a new deal with the tribe that would let the tribe keep blackjack and add other house-banked games such as craps and roulette. But the deal, valued at $3 billion, was rejected by the Legislature earlier this year.
In the meantime, a casualty of the uncertain state of gaming in Florida was reported last week when Blue Horizon Casino Cruises announced it was suspended trips out of the Port of Palm Beach.
PB Gaming, which owned and operated the single-vessel operation, termed the suspension a “difficult business decision,” saying “the pending Seminole Compact with the state of Florida expected to take place in 2017 and the expansion of slot machines into the Palm Beach County race track will significantly impede normal profitable business growth moving forward.”
The 600-passenger gambling and day “cruise to nowhere” launched last July after the ship’s two previous operators had gone bankrupt.
In response to those failures, the port had required PB Gaming to pay a $250,000 non-refundable cash deposit and another $150,000 in pre-passenger payments. Its contract with the port also required the company to pay $730,000 a year in passenger fees, an estimated $80,000 in parking fees and $36,470 a year to lease office space in the port administration building.
