Seminole Compact still in play, Richard Corcoran says

Florida House Speaker-designate Richard Corcoran Monday said lawmakers again will consider a gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

A federal judge earlier this month ruled the tribe can continue to offer blackjack and other “banked card games” to its Hard Rock Casino customers across the state, including the Tampa location.

The tribe sued the state, saying it had broken an exclusivity deal with the tribe, one part of what’s called the 2010 Seminole Compact. The Seminoles now can offer blackjack until 2030 without sharing revenue with the state. The original deal wound up being worth more than $200 million per year.

A renewed blackjack deal struck by Gov. Rick Scott earlier this year promised $3 billion over seven years in revenue share to the state, but it failed to gain approval from lawmakers. It also contained key provisions critics said expand gambling in Florida, such as allowing the tribe to offer craps and roulette.

Passing the deal helps both sides, providing the state with much-needed cash and the tribe with “stability,” Corcoran told reporters.

The new compact “will go through the whole committee process,” Corcoran said. “We’ll see it work itself through.”

State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, a Miami-Dade Republican, again will handle the agreement in the House as chair of the new Commerce Committee.

But Corcoran also said there would almost certainly be “underlying legislation” attached to any compact considerations: “I think you’re going to have to have both to try to get something done.”

But it was the accompanying legislation that helped kill the compact last session.

Lawmakers trying to appease pari-mutuel interests, such as horse and dog tracks, added on even more measures to expand gambling, including slot machines and card games. That ensured its demise among legislators shy of seeming too cozy with gambling interests.

“We’re a very conservative chamber, and if something is going to pass it will have to be conservative,” Corcoran said. “It’s going to have to be a reduction in gambling.”