Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford said gambling legislation must include two key provisions. First, the state’s voters would have to approve a constitutional amendment in the November elections, requiring 60 percent approval in a regional referendum of any future gaming expansion. Second, Governor Rick Scott would have to negotiate a new gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida this year.
“I wouldn’t like to speak on behalf of the whole chamber, but we have many legal voids that have created a games of chance system lacking in control by Florida voters. I would like to correct that,” Weatherford said.
A provision of the Seminole compact that’s set to expire in 2015 allows the tribe exclusive rights to offer blackjack and other card games at locations including the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa. In return, the state receives a minimum $1 billion from the tribe’s gambling income over five years. But the tribe can stop making payments if it loses exclusive rights to offer those games.
“This is an opportunity for us, like grownups, to have a mature conversation about what gaming should look like in Florida. But I’m unwilling to have that conversation if we can’t have a compact that’s been negotiated and pass a constitutional amendment,” Weatherford said.
Both of those provisions are being discussed by the Senate Gaming committee, chaired by state Senator Garrett Richter, who held several public hearings about the gambling issue throughout the state. Recently he said he will publish the proposed committee bill on February 24 and the committee will review the proposals the week of March 3.
Richter has said he favored one casino-hotel each in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. “There’s not a chance that this legislature will consider a bill that will provide for unlimited casinos statewide. But I happen to think that a destination resort in Miami would be a good thing for the state of Florida. I think it will attract new revenue dollars,” Richter said, adding companies would have to bid for the permits. Results of a recent state-commissioned study found that South Florida casinos could generate $1.5 billion in annual revenue .
Committee members also generally favored establishing a gambling commission, and were split on decoupling—allowing racetracks and jai-alai frontons to offer slots without having to offer parimutuel events.
The draft bill also includes changes to a controversial 2013 law that put internet cafes out of business since it required arcades to have at least 50 coin-operated machines, with prizes valued up to 75 cents. Richter wants to ease the 50-machine requirement, increase the allowed prize values, eliminate the coin-only rule, distinguish amusement machines from slot machines and exempt particular merchandise-dispensing games.
Seminole attorney Barry Richard told the Herald that Scott’s office has not yet approached the tribe about a new compact. A Scott spokesman said the governor would “take the time needed to get the best deal for Floridians.”
The complex bill appears to be at least 300 pages long, which has raised some concerns among legislators. State Senator Tom Lee said, “If we’re going to be at 300 pages we’re going to need some serious jet-powered head of steam behind this thing to get it off the ground. And the more stuff that’s in it that looks like we’re expanding gambling could make it very difficult to get lift.” Richter responded, “My objective is to get it off the ground.”
Also hoping to see casino-resorts get off the ground in south Florida is Sheldon Adelson, owner of Las Vegas Sands, and other casino operators who reportedly have hired more than 100 lobbyists to work the state legislature. But the Walt Disney Company has an equally strong lobbyist team. Disney said Las Vegas-style casino resorts will negatively impact Florida’s family friendly image. But observers say the company also fears losing its monopoly over the state’s entertainment and hospitality industry.
Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said, “The massive expansion of gambling that would come from legalizing mega-casinos would be a bad bet for Florida’s taxpayers, tourism brand and existing businesses.”
But gambling law expert Robert Jarvis of Fort Lauderdale said, “Gambling interests in Las Vegas and Atlantic City are looking for new territory, and opening Florida to them would be tremendous. The fear for Disney is that instead of people going to Disney and dropping their disposable income there, they’ll go to the destination casinos and drop their money there.”
State Senator Gwen Margolis, who represents a large section of Miami Beach, said, “Miami Beach’s population does not want a casino in Miami Beach.” She added legislators supporting a casino in Miami have a double standard. “They say that it is all right to have casinos as long as they are located in Dade, but they don’t want to have one in their own districts,” she said.
John Sowinski, president of the anti-gambling group No Casinos noted, “The fact that this is an issue that is currently being discussed by the legislature is testimony to the political influence of the games of chance industry. Never before has so much intellectual energy been spent on such an unappealing issue for the public.”
