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House Committee Approves Seminole Gambling Compact

Posted on April 10th, 2010

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The House Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review voted 15-3 Thursday readily approving the gambling deal amid admonitions from conservative religious groups and protests from pari-mutuels. On Wednesday, the Seminole Tribal Council gave its undisputed approval to the gambling compact and Gov. Charlie Crist signed it. The compact is now awaiting action from the Senate, which is expected to vote on it Tuesday.

The Senate has employed the expertise of law professor Nelson I. Rose to review the compact, paying him $800 an hour. Sen. Mike Haridopolos said, “I think we need to take a very measured look at it over the weekend. Before we sign on the dotted line, I want to make sure what we think it is is truly what it is.”

Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, chairman of the committee and lead negotiator with the tribe said, “At the end of the day, what we did was take a statesmanlike approach to a controversy that was not of our creation.” He said the compact “does not allow further expansion of gaming” but that it also does not ask the tribe to stop the table games its casinos have been operating illegally since January 2008.

Under the agreement, the tribe would have exclusive right to offer blackjack, chemin de fer, and baccarat at the tribe’s five casinos in Broward, Tampa and Immokalee for five years. All seven casinos of the tribe would also be allowed to operate Vegas-style Class III slot machines for twenty years.

The tribe would have to pay the state of Florida not less than $1 billion in a span of five years, including a $435 million payment by the end of June representing collections from the 2007 gambling compact with the governor that would now become invalid. After the five-year period, the tribe would continue paying the state with an amount contingent on its games’ profits.

The measure also lowers the tax rate for pari-mutuels in Miami-Dade and Broward from 50 percent to 35 on condition that their tax revenues to the state remain steady. Hialeah Park would be allowed to continue quarter horse racing, after which it would shift to thoroughbred racing and set up poker rooms and slot machines.

Pari-mutuels outside Miami-Dade and Broward would be able to extend gaming hours and increase betting limits for the card rooms, and with a legislative nod, would be allowed to add 350 bingo-style machines and historic racing machines. The tribe would either stop or lower their payments if the state allows other casino games anywhere in the state.

Christian groups said the compact would ruin families by worsening cases of gambling addiction and increasing crime incidents and would cause pari-mutuels to demand for more games to cope with competition from the tribe.“Stop it if you can,” said Bill Bunkley, of the Florida Baptist Convention.

A lobbyist for Tampa Bay Downs horse track, Ken Plante said the measure is “the biggest expansion of gambling in this state without a vote of the people” and that it “will probably put pari-mutuels out of business in this state” if the Legislature does not see to an adequate protection for the pari-mutuel industry. Legislators said the state needs the money and the deal will provide it.