Florida Legislature cannot afford to unleash a worse expansion of gaming
The $3 billion legal agreement that Gov. Rick Scott negotiated with the Seminole Tribe over gambling rights last month promises to be a heavy lift in the Legislature as the regular session opens next week. The issue centers around the idea that this is an expansion of gambling, but this is not that simple.
Certainly, the Legislature will put its stamp on this so-called compact, a 20-year extension of several provisions of the 2010 agreement that expired last year.
The new agreement allows current slots and card games, and gives the tribe exclusive rights to blackjack, craps and roulette at its seven casinos in exchange for $3 billion over seven years. The old compact did not include craps or roulette and only allowed blackjack at five casinos, including the Hard Rock clubs in Tampa and Hollywood, and paid the state $1 billion over the past five years for slot machines and card games.
That's clearly an expansion of gambling, but the compact also states the Seminoles would relinquish the old monopoly on blackjack statewide and on slots outside the pari-mutuels in two counties where they are currently legal by voter referendum, Miami-Dade and Broward. With another vote, those pari-mutuels could add blackjack tables.
In addition, voters in six other counties have approved slot machines at pari-mutuels, which further opens the gambling expansion. But the compact does not authorize those machines in five of the jurisdictions, only Palm Beach County.
Sarasota County is not on that list, though the Sarasota Kennel Club is home to a poker room. But lawmakers can expect a pitched battle with pari-mutuels statewide over their exclusion in the agreement.
Animal rights organizations here and elsewhere will support one provision in the agreement, which eliminates the requirement that dog and horse tracks hold a minimum number of races to qualify for poker rooms or slot machines. This decoupling, as the process is known, would save the pari-mutuel industry millions.
A Catch-22
This Editorial Board has steadfastly opposed an expansion of gambling in this state, dependent on a family-friendly tourism industry where theme parks and beaches hold sway.
But there's a Catch-22 here, a looming lawsuit that could force the issue and cause more widespread gambling than this new compact envisions.
State regulators caved in to demands from gaming interests and approved electronic versions of blackjack and "player-banked" card games at pari-mutuels statewide and at competing South Florida racinos, which are racetracks where slot machines are permitted. In its lawsuit, the Seminole Tribe argues this breaches the 2010 compact provision on exclusivity in South Florida by allowing similar table games electronically at competing casinos. The suit seeks a court order that the state declare the table games legal. The federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act gives the tribe the right to request court intervention.
In an interview with the Herald Editorial Board this week, James Allen, the chairman of Hard Rock International and the chief executive officer of Seminole Gaming, stated the tribe will return to court if the Legislature rejects this new compact. Without an agreement, the state would experience a massive expansion of gaming, he contends, since the state now allows new gaming machines and that opens the legal door.
Native American sovereignty gives considerable tribal rights, including a federal exemption from paying incomes taxes on gaming revenue. States must negotiate, a major reason for exclusivity on certain games and compacts.
The Legislature must tread lightly, find an acceptable agreement and avoid a major expansion. The governor's compact with the Seminoles no doubt expands gaming, but now the issue is to not open the floodgates.
This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Florida Legislature cannot afford to unleash a worse expansion of gaming ."