House and Senate advance gambling bills with stark differences

Florida House and Senate committees on Thursday approved vastly different approaches to the future of gambling in Florida, with the Senate opening the door to massive expansion of slot machines and Indian gaming, while the House attempts to retract gaming and preserve protected markets for horse and dog racing and tribal gaming for another 20 years.

The House bill “reaffirms our commitment to a limited gaming footprint,” said Rep. Michael LaRosa, R-St. Cloud, chair of the Tourism & Gaming Control Subcommittee, which passed its bill 10-5.

By contrast, the Senate bill would give Miami-Dade and Broward counties each an additional slot casino, the Seminole Tribe would have seven full-scale casinos, and horse and dog tracks in at least eight counties would get new slot parlors.

The measures are seen as the first pieces in a lengthy negotiation between the chambers in an effort to guarantee the state an estimated $250 million to $300 million in annual revenues from the Seminole Tribe and to clarify the state’s now-porous gaming laws, which have been weakened by legal challenges, court rulings and numerous loopholes.

Under the House bill, the state would re-enact the current gaming compact that gives the Seminole Tribe the exclusive right to slot machines outside of Miami-Dade and Broward and blackjack at their South Florida casinos in exchange for $3 billion in payments to the state over seven years.

The bill would ban pari-mutuels from adding slot machines in the eight counties where voters have authorized the games — Brevard, Duval, Gadsden, Lee, Hamilton, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Washington counties. It would also reverse court rulings that have allowed pari-mutuels to operate designated-player games — popular alternatives to poker in many card rooms throughout the state.

The Senate’s competing plan, SB 8 by Sen. Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican, passed the Senate Appropriations Committee 14-2 and will be voted on by the full Senate in the first week of the legislative session that begins March 7.

The Senate plan would make it possible for Genting, the Malaysian company, to build its long-sought resort casino in Miami. It would allow the declining horse and dog racing and jai-alai industries to stop racing and operate as slot casinos exclusively. And, for the fantasy sports operators, the Senate bill would impose regulations and require them to get a permit to operate.

This story was originally published February 23, 2017 at 6:21 PM with the headline "House and Senate advance gambling bills with stark differences."