Casino Watch Focus has reported on the recent news that the Florida legislative session would end with no gambling deal in place. The failure to renegotiate a deal has been an ongoing issue. At the core of the problem is that the Seminoles have exclusive rights to table games and certain gambling. Florida has not been enforcing this exclusivity and the courts sided with the Seminoles. However, the Seminoles have been acting in good faith, providing the state with the estimated $300 – $350 million annual payments the original agreement set up for such exclusivity. But now that the legislature has once again failed to stop others from offering designated card games, which is expanding gambling in the state, the Seminole tribe has decided to now stop providing the good faith payments. The Sun Sentinel reports:
The tribe had warned it would halt the payments, which totaled nearly $330 million last year, because of controversial designated-player card games offered by many of the state’s pari-mutuel cardrooms. The Seminoles — and a federal judge — say the games violate part of a 20-year gambling deal by the tribe and the state in 2010. That deal, in part, gave the tribe exclusive rights to “banked” card games.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida made good on threats Tuesday by telling Gov. Ron DeSantis it is quitting a long-standing revenue-sharing agreement with the state after negotiations on a new gambling deal went nowhere this spring.
In a July 2017 settlement between the Seminoles and former Gov. Rick Scott, the state agreed to drop its appeal of Hinkle’s decision and to take “aggressive enforcement action” against pari-mutuels operating banked card games that violate state law. In exchange, the Seminoles agreed to continue making payments to the state until the end of this month. “Unfortunately, there has not been aggressive enforcement against those games, which have expanded since Judge Hinkle’s decision,” Osceola wrote.
Florida lawmakers considered this possible outcome, and made adjustments to the budget, but some believe the financial contribution, and the gambling restriction that comes from Seminole exclusivity, too import to not make an attempt to resolve the issue. An online source explains:
State Representative Evan Jenne called for negotiations with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to reinstate the annual payments of an estimated $350 million suspended by the tribe after a failure to reach an agreement about the future of gambling in the state. “That’s just too much money to be left out there unaccounted for in our budget,” said the legislator.
Jenne, a Democrat who represents 99th District which include most of Hollywood and Southern Broward, said the suspension of payments from the tribe could have been avoided. “It was something that was a long time coming, it’s been talked about for quite some time it’s been nearly a decade since the compact would, should have been signed,” he said.
“They had a promised of exclusivity when it came to games like that and the state has not done their part in holding up that part of the bargain,” said Jenne.
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