The Seminole tribe, which operates a multibillion-dollar gaming empire in Florida, has withheld $350 million in gaming revenues from the state, saying the government violated its compact by allowing smaller gaming halls like parimutuels to offer lucrative banked card games like blackjack.
The tribe says state officials should “take aggressive enforcement action” to prevent the games at those smaller casinos.
In a letter to Governor Rick DeSantis, Tribal Council Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. wrote, “As you know, the tribe and state have engaged in numerous rounds of negotiations to resolve a number of important issues, including a mechanism to shut down the illegal banked card games … The tribe respects your decision to take more time to review the issues and resume discussions this summer. In the meantime the tribe will suspend its revenue share payments until the illegal banked card game issue is resolved.”
According to the Guardian newspaper, Florida lawmakers approved a $91 billion state budget last month that excluded any income from the tribe. “We’re not going to count dollars we’ve been told are not believed to be owed,” said Senate President Bill Galvano.
John Lockwood, an attorney representing several pari-mutuel casinos, denied his clients are doing anything wrong.
“We’ve litigated this issue and have never got a ruling that these games were illegal under state law,” he told the Guardian. “The tribe’s position is they violate the compact, our position is that they’re legal under state law.”
Under the most recent settlement made with former Governor Rick Scott, the tribe paid about $350 million a year to the state. But that agreement expired at the end of May.
Late in this year’s legislative session there was talk of allowing the tribe to have rights over sports betting, which would have greatly increased state revenue. But a deal didn’t materialize before the end of the legislative session, and lawmakers said they ran out of time, according to the Miami Herald.
Lockwood called the tribe’s stance “bizarre.”
“They are making billions of dollars a year. They go to the legislature to make the deal even better and when they don’t get their way, they decide to spit in the face of the executive branch. It’s a pretty bold move on their part. I’m not sure what their end game is.”
But Democratic Rep. Evan Jenne, whose district includes the Seminole Tribe’s headquarters and Hard Rock Casino, said the tribe has “grown tired of being jerked around and being used for Republican campaign coffers. They’ve been used and abused by Republican leadership in the executive branch and legislative branch for campaign money only to not have anything reciprocated when it comes to signing the compact.
“This falls at the feet of leadership. This is their fault. Period. The end. It’s a complete failure,” he said. “When you treat someone very poorly over that period of time, eventually it’s going to come to a point of no return. I certainly don’t blame the tribe.”
