NEWS

Seminoles, state continue bargaining over gambling pact

The News-Press staff and wire
Greyhounds compete at the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound track on Saturday. Greyhound racing is slated to be a big issue in Tallahassee this spring as legislators file bills to improve safety in the industry.

Naples Fort Myers Greyhound Racing and Poker  would be permitted to stop greyhound racing while retaining lucrative card rooms as part of a gambling deal being negotiated between state leaders and the Seminole tribe.

The agreement – still a long way from being finalized – would also allow a new gambling operation in Miami-Dade County to start up with slot machines, Seminole casinos would get craps and roulette, a Palm Beach County dog track could have slot machines and the state could reap at least $3 billion over seven years.

Multiple sources close to the negotiations provided details to The News Service of Florida about the ongoing talks between the Seminoles and Gov. Rick Scott's office, which is working in tandem with House and Senate leaders to rewrite a 20-year agreement, called a "compact," that authorized the tribe's slot-machine and table-game operations. A provision of the deal, inked in 2010, gave the Seminoles exclusive rights to operate banked card games, such as blackjack, for five years in exchange for a minimum payment of $1 billion. That portion of the compact expired this summer.

Under the talks, the Seminoles would guarantee a minimum $3 billion over seven years as part of compact that would last another 20 years.

"What I can confirm is that negotiations have made significant progress," Senate Regulated Industries Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told The News Service on Tuesday.

Greyhounds are released from the starting gate at the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound track on Saturday.


The latest proposal would also ban "player-banked" card games, now underway at a number of pari-mutuels, in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Pari-mutuels in other counties could continue to run the games, in which the "bank" is another player instead of "the house," but the state would impose clearer guidelines regarding the popular games.

The Seminoles contend that the games, first authorized by state gambling regulators in 2011, violate the tribe's rights to exclusivity in operating banked card games, which typically involve players betting against the house instead of against each other.

Many of the components now under discussion don't directly affect the Seminoles but instead deal with the pari-mutuel industry.

For example, the Seminoles are purportedly "agnostic" about decoupling horse and dog racing from other gambling activities, including slots at the South Florida pari-mutuels and card rooms at facilities in other counties, including Lee. Currently, pari-mutuels are required to have racing or jai alai games if they want to offer card rooms or slots.

Greyhounds are released from the starting gate at the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound track on Saturday. Greyhound racing is slated to be a big issue in Tallahassee this spring as legislators file bills to improve safety in the industry. So far, five bills relating to greyhound tracks have been filed. They range from requiring facilities to report injuries, not just deaths, and prohibiting people convicted of certain violent crimes from working with the animals.

The Naples Fort Myers track in Bonita Springs is required by law to run about 3,500 races a season because that's how many it was running during the 1996 season when the state's poker room permits were established.

While it is almost certain that any legislation would allow dog tracks to drop greyhound races, doing away with horse racing is more contentious.



Getting the requisite support for such a deal from the Republican-dominated Legislature is problematic. Many members are prone to protect pari-mutuel operators in their own backyards or have ideological objections to gambling in general, which could prompt them to cast a "no" vote against any gambling-related proposal.

Slots for the Palm Beach Kennel Club are considered crucial to getting any bill out of Bradley's Regulated Industries Committee, whose members include several Palm Beach County legislators.



Granting slots to the Palm Beach dog track while prohibiting the cash cows in other counties where voters have approved them – including Lee, Brevard and Gadsden – is rife with political problems. It could also cost the endorsement of legislators who want their local operators to reap the same benefits.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Greyhounds compete at the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound track on Saturday. Greyhound racing is slated to be a big issue in Tallahassee this spring as legislators file bills to improve safety in the industry.

Izzy Havenick, vice president for political affairs for Southwest Florida Enterprises, owner of the Naples Fort Myers  and Flagler dog tracks, said he knows enough about the negotiations to still be hopeful the Lee County facility will be included in any agreement.

Besides stopping the racing requirement, Havenick wants the state to approve slot machine referendums passed by several communities, such as Lee County, in 2012. Despite the success of the votes, the local referendums can't go into effect until legislators pass a law approving of the slots.

The Bonita Springs track was losing more than $2 million a year on dog races, according to a state study on gambling by New Jersey-based Spectrum Gaming. Most pari-mutuels rely on their poker rooms to stay afloat, the report said.

Requiring the Legislature's approval injects doubt into a complicated gambling agreement much like "putting a queen-sized sheet on a king-sized bed," according to House Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, a Miami-Dade County Republican.

"It's a Rubik's cube. I don't think a Rubik's cube is impossible to solve. If you give an intelligent person enough time, they'll figure it out. But in the world of competing interests where you have so many other things taking place. … Right now we've been singularly focused on the compact because it's the off-season. But we're about to ramp up and start swallowing water out of the fire hose. So where Rob Bradley and I have been able to fully dedicate ourselves to this negotiation over the past few months, now I'm going to have to be digesting insurance bills and energy bills and business regulation bills that come before my committee. The timeline for an easy landing is winding down. With each passing day, it becomes more difficult to have a soft landing," Diaz told The News Service on Tuesday.

Visitors to the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track attend races on opening day on Friday.


And, unlike nearly a decade ago when then-Gov. Charlie Crist championed the gambling deal with the Seminoles, neither Scott nor leaders in the House and Senate leader have openly advocated for a new agreement with the tribe, making the odds for final passage of a compact even longer.

"The state of the economy is completely different than it was when the original deal was inked back in 2010. At the time the deal was put together, the state budget was enhanced by $435 million. Now, we're in a situation where the economy is much better. We're not spending or counting on the dollars from the Seminole Tribe. And we're not dealing with a governor who is defending an existing deal as being valid, like we were with Gov. Crist back then," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican who, as a House member, was instrumental in crafting the 2010 deal with the Seminoles.