Jim Rosica
The Seminole Tribe of Florida hopes its latest TV ad is “Guaranteed” to win lawmakers over.
The ad uses clips from last week’s Senate Regulated Industries Committee, the panel with gambling oversight responsibility, where legislators first started looking at the deal.
It “highlights the guaranteed revenue share to the State of Florida under the new gaming compact,” according to a news release.
The ad starts running statewide on Wednesday on broadcast and local cable stations of CNN, FOX and MSNBC, and will appear online.
Markets for this ad are Tampa, Miami, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Fort Myers, Mobile-Pensacola, Tallahassee, Panama City, and Gainesville, the release said.
The heat is on the tribe as gambling opponents and skeptical lawmakers have been down on the deal, with some suggesting it won’t be passed this year.
Broadly, the new “Seminole Compact” would continue to allow blackjack in tribal casinos in return for a $3 billion cut of the take over seven years.
It also would let the Seminoles add craps and roulette tables, as well as permit the Legislature to OK slot machines at the Palm Beach Kennel Club and allow blackjack at some South Florida racetracks. Such moves, critics say, will “lead to the largest gambling expansion in state history.”
The tribe also ran two ads, “’Sovereign” and “Letter,” last week before the Senate meeting.
