POLITICS

Gambling deal closer, including dog racing, but larger problems remain

Alexandra Glorioso
alexandra.glorioso@naplesnews.com; 239-435-3442

TALLAHASSEE - Lawmakers are closer to a gambling deal that could expand gambling in Florida and toss a requirement that sites offer dog racing or other live events if they want to feature card games.

Chuck Connors, from Frenettte Kennel, makes the fourth turn during the first greyhound race on Friday, April 7, 2017, at the Naples-Fort Myers Track and Entertainment Center in Bonita Springs.

But the fixes being debated by House and Senate leaders leave Florida’s gambling environment fundamentally broken, some industry leaders say.

The House, which has fought expansion of gambling, offered to allow voters to approve eliminating the requirement that track owners provide dog or horse racing if they want to offer card games like poker.

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The House also agreed to expand gambling at casinos operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and to add another casino with slots and card games in Miami-Dade County.

The Senate on Thursday countered with a measure that adds a second new casino in the Miami area and eliminates the need for all live events at tracks that offer card games and the minimum $3 billion the Seminoles would have to pay the state for gambling over the next seven years, which means Florida could receive less than expected.

Sen. Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican co-chairing the joint gambling committee, said the removal of the tribe's minimum payment was to "assure them that if we don't derive a certain level of revenue share from the Seminoles then we will achieve it through private industry."

Tribe lawyer Barry Richard said leaders will wait for a final deal before commenting on details.

Still outstanding is the major issue of whether to allow slot machines in the eight counties that have voted to approve them by referendum.

In its most recent offer, the Senate would allow slot machines in those counties as long as they limit them to 1,500 machines and forfeit one active pari-mutuel permit.

Click here to get complete coverage of the Florida legislative session »

Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, a Miami Republican who is the co-chair of the joint gambling committee, said the House had been adamant about not expanding gambling to counties that voted for it but that he realizes they are up against court decisions and might have to “expand a little so that we won’t have to expand a lot.”

While lawmakers in both chambers are optimistic they will be able to come to an agreement after being in gridlock for two consecutive sessions, industry experts say the deal doesn’t go far enough to ensure that whatever passes will be effectively regulated.

Although Florida is one of the largest gambling states in the country, it’s unusual in not having a standalone regulatory agency that can create and enforce rules.

The proposed legislation by a joint committee on gambling does nothing to develop an agency that can regulate the landscape as it evolves.

Regulating gambling falls under the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, a Cabinet-level agency with a governor-appointed secretary who oversees monitoring of businesses and professionals in Florida.

“Unless they create a gaming commission or something similar, they won’t be able to address loopholes that are yet to be identified,” said John Lockwood, a Tallahassee-based lawyer who has used Florida’s weak regulatory system and what he refers to as its archaic laws over the past decade to expand gambling for his clients through state courts.

In the last five years there have been at least 20 lawsuits testing the boundaries of Florida’s control over the facets of gambling, many of which have expanded gambling across the state.

Izzy Havenick, vice president of his family-owned Magic City Casino and owner of Naples Fort Myers Greyhound Racing & Poker in Bonita Springs and a Miami track, said he has frequently gone to court because state regulators are so unresponsive.

“The reason we have to keep taking things to court is because we can’t get an answer” from the department, Havenick said. “You are forced to sue to get an answer. Florida is the only state I know of where the gaming regulators are adversarial to the industry.”

Legislative leaders said they'd be open to adopting a more independent state regulatory framework later, but not this year, saying it’s unnecessary and that they don’t have time to include it.

“It hasn’t been in either bill this year, so to introduce a new thing like that is a weighty lift,” Diaz said.

At one point the executive branch’s regulatory agency had more authority to create new rules surrounding legislation, but Republicans drastically narrowed its independence in 1996.

And while the Legislature could potentially develop an independent gambling regulatory agency later, lawmakers could be running out of time to change their laws.

A Tallahassee-based nonprofit called Voters in Charge is pushing to get a constitutional amendment on the 2018 ballot that could strip lawmakers of their ability to expand gambling and instead give that power to voters.