All in—or out? Gambling revenue puzzles state economists

gambling gaming cards chips

A roundtable of state economists Tuesday decided to take a pass on adopting a forecast for Indian gambling dollars that flow to the state.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida pays over $200 million a year into state coffers as part of a deal that guarantees it exclusivity to offer certain games, especially blackjack.

And even though the Tribe and the state settled their lawsuit over blackjack, the Revenue Estimating Conference this August added a telling footnote to their projections, basically telling lawmakers who build the yearly state budget: Don’t count on this money.

They called it “nonrecurring” because it “cannot be anticipated with sufficient certainty.”

The conference debated Tuesday but left for another day whether to leave that proviso on their work, or start calling the Seminole money “recurring.”

Though the Tribe publicly doesn’t challenge state gambling regulators’ promise of “aggressive enforcement” against games that threaten their exclusivity, some within the Tribe aren’t so happy with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, charged with policing gambling in Florida.

It’s a big deal: Break the Seminole Compact – the contract on exclusive games and payments between the state and Tribe – and it’s entitled to pay not one more dime.

“Aggressive enforcement (means) that we are actively going out and looking,” said Jason Maine, the department’s general counsel, speaking to lawmakers in November.

“We’re actively taking action without complaint to verify that operation of any card game is operated legally under statute,” he said. “We … evaluate facilities individually, the games that they are playing, looking at the mechanics of the game….”

The sides are now in a “forbearance period;” think of it as each eyeing the other warily.

As Amy Baker, the Legislature’s chief economist, put it, it’s like the Tribe saying, “as long as you try, as long as you make this good-faith ‘aggressive enforcement,’ as long as you’re trying, we won’t invoke any other option,” such as cutting off the checks.

That is, until April 1, when the forbearance period ends.

“What we don’t know is, say at the end of March, is a ‘good-faith’ effort enough?” Baker said. The Compact sets it up as an all-or-nothing, it terms of paying up.

For instance, the Tribe’s top in-house lawyer has warned lawmakers that fantasy sports bills filed for the 2018 Legislative Session, if passed, would violate the Compact.

And the Tribe has filed suit against operators of what’s called “electronic gambling parlors” in the Jacksonville area, saying they too violate the Compact.

Bottom line: There’s enough already eating at the Tribe to make revenue estimators sweat.

Jim Rosica

Jim Rosica is the Tallahassee-based Senior Editor for Florida Politics. He previously was the Tampa Tribune’s statehouse reporter. Before that, he covered three legislative sessions in Florida for The Associated Press. Jim graduated from law school in 2009 after spending nearly a decade covering courts for the Tallahassee Democrat, including reporting on the 2000 presidential recount. He can be reached at [email protected].


5 comments

  • Mike

    January 9, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    Screw the Indians- give all tracks slots and table games -who need them

    • Justin

      January 9, 2018 at 5:30 pm

      Screw the tracks, built as a track and should die a track. What they need is to die off already

      • MICHAEL

        January 10, 2018 at 10:16 am

        Exactly

  • MICHAEL

    January 10, 2018 at 10:21 am

    Someone in the State dept is getting an envelope. Who in their right mind let alone a bunch of high paid attorney’s plays this off as everything is fine. The Seminoles beat the State up in court over the designated player games. The State has been stuck for hundreds of millions in legal fees. The State is pushing their luck again expecting different results. Everyone knows they can not win. Someone has to be getting an envelope…just saying..

  • MICHAEL

    January 10, 2018 at 10:28 am

    Aggressive means removing the BANKER from the designated player. The games can only be played legally when there is no banker.. Otherwise it is a Class III game which the Seminoles are complaining about and which the Federal Judge determined.

Comments are closed.


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