July 31 is approaching fast—the deadline for the state of Florida to renew its five-year agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, giving the tribe exclusive rights to offer blackjack and other table games at its casinos. In exchange, the state will have received billion from the tribe. Governor Rick Scott would negotiate the agreement, which would be approved by the legislature in their next session that opens March 3. Senate President Andy Gardiner and other state legislators who are against gambling most likely would vote against any proposed agreement.
But reaching a new agreement is not guaranteed. Former state senator Steve Geller, former president of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, said, “The one thing I can tell you with pretty good certainty is that anybody who can tell you with certainty they know what’s going to happen is wrong.”
From 2013 to 2014, Seminole casinos generated $2.1 billion; the tribe paid the state $130 million to operate blackjack and other table games, and $120 million to offer slots at their casinos in Tampa, Brighton and Immokalee. Under federal law, the tribe is not required to pay to offer slots in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, where they are legal. If an agreement is not reached, the Seminoles would have 90 days to cease blackjack operations, and the state would lose $130 million annually.
However, some legislators and casino interests said allowing destination casinos in South Florida could more than make up that difference. The Seminoles want legislators to stop Genting or Las Vegas Sands from building casinos for the duration of any new agreement.
A new Seminole agreement also would have to benefit casinos at horse tracks, dog tracks and jai-alai frontons, which are required to pay a 35 percent tax on slot profits and cannot offer blackjack. South Florida dog tracks and jai-alai frontons are lobbying to drop the requirement that they must hold races or matches in order to offer slot machines. But jai-alai players, dog breeders and trainers fear they will lose their jobs if races are cut back or eliminated.
Isadore Havenick, vice president of Magic City Casino in Miami, said he and the other South Florida racino operators met with Scott in January. He noted parimutuels will suffer if the new Seminole agreement does not address their concerns. “We’re eight local businesses and we’re just asking to be treated equally and have a place at the table,” he said. Last year the eight racinos in Broward and Miami-Dade took in $531 million from slots and poker, slightly more than the $528 million the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood alone took in from slots, poker and table games.
