After all the hoopla surrounding Florida Governor Rick Scott’s announcement of the proposed 20-year gambling compact between the state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe, interested parties are staking out their positions. The agreement would renew the tribe’s exclusive rights to offer blackjack, expanding it to all seven Seminole casinos and adding roulette and craps, in exchange for billion over seven years to the state.
Scott now is deferring to the legislature, stating, “I’m just the first part of the process. Now it goes to the legislature. I’ll respect the decision of Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli. It goes to them and they’ll make a decision if they want to look at the compact, if they want to bring it up for a vote, when they want to bring it up for a vote.”
Gardiner said the proposed compact will be debated and voted on in the Senate in the 2016 legislative session, starting January 12. He noted the money expected from the agreement will not be included in the 2016-2017 state budget. “I am not sure it would be responsible for us at this point to build a budget if you don’t know you are really going to get the money,” Gardiner said.
State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, who helped negotiate the deal, said, “You know that you need 61 votes” in the 120-member House. “How you get there is a matter of compromise and creativity,” he noted.
State Senator Jack Latvala said, “I suspect that this compact is DOA because there are so many issues in it that different people are going to find problems with.”
House Republican Leader Dana Young commented the agreement appears to pick winners and losers, making it “a very heavy lift in the legislature.” She noted any deal would have to be fair to all parimutuels in South Florida. “There are some that would be placed in a better position under this agreement than others. The legislature may be okay with that, but it may be a stumbling block unless it is addressed in a way all parties feel they are being treated equitably,” Young said, noting in some areas tribal gaming is hurting nearby parimutuels; for example, the Hard Rock in Tampa has affected business at Tampa Bay Downs and Derby Lanes.
Young added the compact’s chances of passing will be even further reduced if it seems to expand gambling. “There needs to be a legitimate and meaningful level of the gaming contraction footprint in the state of Florida. My legislation last year did that. I don’t think that this does,” she said.
Jim Allen, chairman at Hard Rock International and chief executive officer at Seminole Gaming, said if the legislature approves the compact, the tribe will move forward with a proposed $1.8 billion expansion at the Tampa and Hollywood casino resorts. Those projects would create 14,500 construction jobs plus more than 4,000 permanent jobs earning annual salaries of $50,000 or more. “It’s premature to comment on when we’re going to commence on anything until it’s all been approved,” Allen said. He noted the Seminoles gave Florida $289 million for the fiscal year ending September 30.
Allen commented that being allowed to offer roulette at Seminole casinos would draw Europeans and South Americans, and adding craps would attract players from the Northeast. “When we look at numbers we’ve agreed to, they are within the necessary guidelines for us to continue to grow the business of the tribe under the 20-year agreement. There is a tremendous request that people want to expand gambling. This document eliminates that uncertainty and creates certainty,” Allen said.
In addition to limiting Seminole gambling to its seven existing casinos, the proposed compact also limits slot machines to 6,000 at one facility and gaming tables to 300. Racetrack casinos could have up to 15 blackjack tables at their Broward and Miami-Dade facilities. Up to 750 slots would be allowed at a Palm Beach Kennel Club and at another facility in Miami-Dade County, but that will put the pressure on lawmakers from voters in five counties—Brevard, Lee, Gadsden, Hamilton and Washington –where slots have been approved but not installed. A lawsuit regarding slot machines in Gadsden County is being closely watched in the Florida Supreme Court.
Slots were approved in a voter referendum in Palm Beach County in 2012.Patrick Rooney Sr., chief executive officer at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, said if the proposed compact passes, the track would spend $100-$150 million to build a new casino on its property, creating 1,500-2,000 new jobs. “We’ve tried for years to get slot machines here, and this is the closest we’ve been. We’re up at bat, and the only question would be the legislature approving it or not,” Rooney said. Daniel Martell, president of the Economic Council of Palm Beach County, added, “The Kennel Club should be competitive with the rest of South Florida. They’ve just been set up for failure for too long.” Adding slots at the Palm Beach Kennel Club could mean a $100 million annual windfall. The 1,456 slots at Isle Casino Racing Pompano Park generated in $145.6 million in net revenue in the 2014-15 fiscal year, paying $51 million in state taxes, according to state figures.
The proposed compact also would allow live events to be decoupled from other gambling activities, like card rooms, from existing jai alai frontons and dog and horse racetracks. Companion legislation, sponsored by state Senator Rob Bradley, the lead Senate negotiator on the Seminole pact, would allow some of proceeds to be used to buy out existing parimutuel permits, giving struggling tracks a graceful way out and allowing lawmakers to state gambling in the state would decrease. Said Diaz, “There’s some legislators that would be okay with decoupling all horses. There’s some that would be okay with decoupling most horses but not thoroughbreds. It does get a little stickier when it comes to horses. I look at it as a matter of equity. I think it would be unjust to start picking winners and losers. So if that’s what ultimately happens because that’s where the votes are, then those losers would need to have something done that would alleviate some of their concerns if we want to pass an equitable deal.” Only Tampa Bay Downs, Gulfstream Park and Calder Race Course currently run thoroughbreds.
The proposed Seminole agreement also would pave the way for the state lottery to sell tickets at gas pumps.
Anti-gambling gambling group No Casinos, led by John Sowinski, said the proposed compact “will lead to the largest gambling expansion in state history, taking South Florida in the direction of Las Vegas and Atlantic City while creating pressure to build casinos in the rest of the state. This compact threatens our family-friendly tourism brand, the most successful in the world. The compact promotes a business model that invites crime, addiction, government corruption and other social ills – costing the state far more than the revenue it produces. This compact is a bad deal for Florida’s residents, businesses and economy. We encourage Florida legislators to side with Florida voters who have consistently and overwhelmingly rejected this path for our state.”
The Seminole Tribe is hoping to encourage Florida legislators in a different direction, having given more than $2.7 million over the past three years to more than 90 politicians, a dozen political action committees and both major parties, according to state campaign finance records. That total is more than the tribe donated in the previous 12 years combined. Tribal spokesman Gary Bitner said, “The Seminole Tribe of Florida has been, and continues to be, actively engaged on multiple levels in the political and legislative process.”
The Republican Party of Florida is the largest recipient at $100,000 in donations from the tribe in 2015 and $1.1 million the previous two years. An additional $75,000 went to the Florida Republican Senatorial Committee earlier this year. The Florida Democratic Party received $115,000 in 2015 and $590,000 the previous two years. The tribe also gave $500,000 in 2013 to Let’s Get to Work, Governor Rick Scott’s political committee. And in 2015, the tribe gave $5,000 each to political action committees run by Bradley and Diaz.
