Florida Governor Rick Scott has proposed a seven-year agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that would bring $3 billion to the state, while giving the tribe exclusive rights to certain facets of Florida’s gambling scene.
Scott’s proposal, currently being heard by the Florida Senate’s Committee on Regulated Industries, does more than that, though. It allows South Florida horse tracks, dog tracks, and jai-alai frontons to offer blackjack (with a $15 maximum bet per hand), and adds slot machines at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, while expanding the Seminoles’ offering of games to include roulette and craps. (The tribe now has only blackjack and other table games.) There’s also mention of a referendum to allow one more slot permit in Miami-Dade County.
It is not a bill yet: no legislator has filed anything. But already the pari-mutuels are complaining that the Seminoles get too much, those opposed to gambling say it is too large an expansion, and some northern counties are complaining that they are being cut out of the opportunity to have slots — although it took a 2004 statewide vote for Broward and Miami-Dade counties to get them.
That’s what’s visible. Here’s what’s below the surface:
* The Seminoles really, really want to protect Tampa. Their casino in the western part of the state has no competition. With the closest slots being the Seminoles’ own casino in Immokalee, the Tampa behemoth is the fourth-largest casino in the United States (in terms of gaming positions), with revenues approaching $900 million per year. The Hollywood Hard Rock (also run by the Seminoles) dominates South Florida, but with two other Seminole casinos and the pari-mutuels nibbling at that business, it makes “only” about $550 million. Tampa is the tribe’s true cash cow.
* The Seminoles didn’t propose expansion beyond their craps and roulette, the state did. Seminole Gaming CEO James Allen told Florida Gaming Congress attendees earlier this month that the tribe’s offer was $3 billion for adding craps and roulette. “The Seminole tribe is not a proponent of this perceived huge expansion in the state,” Allen said. What happened was the state created a list of exceptions “that gives the state tremendous flexibility in the future.” Allen also said “That doesn’t mean we support those exceptions or that they’re going to occur.” A combination of Scott and legislators from the House and Senate have listed exceptions (blackjack in South Florida, slots in Palm Beach County, etc.) that the Tribe would be okay with, and which could be implemented without affecting the tribe’s requirement to pay the $3 billion. Those, though, will have to approved via a separate bill. Why would the state do this? Florida’s legislators are trying to cobble together enough support to get that separate bill through, and slots in Palm Beach County would get plenty of support from legislators from that county.
* Genting is still in play. That clause about “one more gambling permit in Miami-Dade?” That will go up for bid, and some wags are suggesting it’s a way for the Malaysian gambling giant that purchased Miami waterfront property to try again to get into the game. But don’t look for a massive glitzy structure like the one which the company released during its first attempt; the state’s proposal says there would be a 750-slot limit. That’s about what the racinos in South Florida offer.
* The tribe has to have something above and beyond what everyone else has, per federal law. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, passed in 1988, sets a path for how tribes and states work out gambling issues. IGRA states that tribes can offer the same games that the rest of an area offers without paying taxes. The only way the state can garner money from a tribe is to allow something above and beyond the norm. And the federal government must approve such agreements, called compacts, to ensure they are on the up and up. That’s why those crying for a “level playing field” will never get it. All they can hope for is a level-er playing field.
* Depending on how the Gretna court case is resolved, this all could be moot. In July, the Florida Supreme Court will hear a case that could puncture Scott’s entire proposal. Gretna Racing, based in upper northwest Florida, is arguing that it should be allowed to have slots because voters approved that via a referendum. They point to language in a bill that carved out slots for Hialeah Park, which was not one of the original racetrack casinos approved for slots in 2008. If Gretna gets slots, five other Florida counties that had a similar referendum would likely file legal suits – and that would wipe out the Seminoles’ exclusivity outside of South Florida. The compact would blow up, and legislators and Scott would have to go back to the drawing board.
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