Card table at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, FL (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)A proposed gambling compact that would give four Seminole casinos exclusive rights to blackjack and other banked card games in Florida continues to hold the state capitol in thrall with the ulimate outcome still unclear.
Thursday, a powerful House committee takes up the issue.
Wednesday, a senate committee considered a version of the deal that would force Gov. Charlie Crist to accept the Senate's version of the compact and tie his hands from later modifying most details of the deal.
One powerful senator said, "limiting the governor" was not a problem for the Senate.
The brief Senate workshop on SB 622 did not generate public debate and no one representing the Seminole Tribe of Florida or pari-mutuel gambling operations rose to speak.
Meanwhile, negotiations over the exclusive gaming compact Crist has proposed for the tribe, largely as a means, he says, to raise much needed revenues, continued out of public view.
Under Crist's compact only the tribe and no other gambling interests would be allowed to operate casino-style banked card games in Florida. In exchange for that exclusive right, the state is betting to receive $445 million annually to plug holes in its education budget. Crist is so certain he will prevail he has incoporated the anticipated gaming revenues into his proposed $69.2 billion budget.
Senate bill sponsor Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, said he expects the compact deal to reach the floor by early next month.
The proposed Senate compact gives four Seminole casinos in Hillsborough and Broward Counties exclusive rights to banked card games for 15 years and gives the state’s seven casinos rights to slot machines. The bill voids Crist’s most recently proposed compact to extend the right to banked card games exclusivley to all Seminole casinos.
Crist signed an agreement with the Seminoles in 2007 giving it blackjack and other banked card games at all seven of its state casinos. The Florida Supreme Court struck down the deal, however, saying it was unconstitutional because the Legislature did not approve it. Crist's newest proposal, reached with the Seminoles last summer, once again puts blackjack in all of the tribe's casinos. The new deal is being opposed by pari-mutuels for giving exclusivity to the Seminoles.
If the bill is passed, the governor has 60 days to propose his own compact -- so long as it does not conflict with the Senate compact‘s provision. The governor can negotiate on greater revenue-sharing payments, but he must hold to the bill on the location and type of games covered by the Senate compact.
Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, said he had not read the bill and could not say if he was for or against it. But, one of the provisions left Thrasher satisfied.
“I think the Legislature has the prerogative in this area, and I don’t have any problem with limiting the governor,” he said.
Approving a new Seminole compact has huge consequences for the state's pari-mutuels -- dog and horse tracks and jai alai frontons. If a compact is not reached, the bill allows pari-mutuels to offer banked card games and operate electronic bingo and slot machines at their facilities.
Barry Richard, attorney for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, wasn't sure why the Seminoles failed to speak at the Senate meeting.
“I can assure you of one thing. It was not a snub of the Legislature,” he said.
Yet the Seminoles are negotiating intently and face-to-face with House leaders led by Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, Richard said. And those negotiations are going well.
“It’s the most optimistic I’ve been since discussions began,” he said.
The exact details of those discussions have yet to be revealed. Richard said he had not seen the Senate’s proposal. Tellingly, the Senate has not had direct discussions with the Seminoles, but it has been talking with the House's Special Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review, led by Galvano. The committee is meeting Thursday afternoon.
Jack Cory, a lobbyist for the Florida Greyhound Association and the Florida branch of the National Greyhound Association, said the Senate compact puts pari-mutuel lobbyists at a disadvantage since state pari-mutuels get nothing unless the compact falls through.
In Cory's view, the Seminoles are playing a divisive game and turning the House and Senate on each other.
"I think the Indians are playing a very dangerous game of Russian roulette," he said.
Representatives of different pari-mutuel industries also have been competing with each other, he said, and their lack of unity has prevented them from getting a shot at the deal.
Alex Tiegen can be reached at 561-329-5389 or e-mailed at atiegen@sunshinestatenews.com