Jim Rosica- Appropriations Subcommittee on Finance and Tax
- Barry Richard
- Christine Davis-Graves
- contraction
- designated player games
- gambling bill
- gambling legislation
- jai alai
- Joe Negron
- Pace-O-Matic
- Rene Garcia
- Richard Corcoran
- SB 840
- Seminole Tribe of Florida
- thoroughbred horse racing
- Travis Hutson
- Voter Control of Gambling Amendment
Sen. Travis Hutson says he believes “there’s a way for us to get there” when asked about gambling legislation finally passing the Legislature this year.
The Appropriations Subcommittee on Finance and Tax on Monday unanimously approved his 90-page rewrite of the Senate’s gaming bill (SB 840) for 2018.
It now includes a House provision: A renewed 20-year deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida for $3 billion in revenue over seven years in return for exclusive rights to blackjack and slot machines outside South Florida.
But the Senate also allows the Seminoles to add craps and roulette, expressly authorizes designated player games, which the House opposes; and exempts fantasy sports from gambling regulation, a move opposed by the Tribe.
Overlaying all of that is Speaker Richard Corcoran‘s position that any bill the House agrees to must be “an absolute contraction” of gambling in the state—though he hasn’t specifically defined that term.
“I would argue this is a contraction all day long,” Hutson, chair of the Regulated Industries Committee, told reporters after the hearing.
Hutson’s bill, which next heads to the full Appropriations Committee, also now exempts thoroughbred horse tracks and jai alai frontons from decoupling, which allows a pari-mutuel to stop live racing but keep offering other gambling, such as slots. The bill does still allow for greyhound-racing decoupling, however.
“In terms of decoupling, there’ll be less bets,” Hutson said. “As far as designated player games and fantasy sports, they’re already being played today. To me, all that is not an expansion, that is a break-even or a contraction.”
Asked how comfortable the Tribe is with the latest Senate product, the St. Augustine Republican added: “We’re close. A couple tweaks here and there.” A spokesman for the Tribe declined comment Monday.
Likely off the table is a provision favored by Senate President Joe Negron that would grant slot machines to pari-mutuels in counties where voters OK’d them in local referendums. That’s opposed by the House and the Tribe.
Before the committee, he also alluded to the specter of a “Voter Control of Gambling” constitutional amendment on the November ballot, requiring a statewide OK for any new or added gaming in the state. If it gets 60 percent approval, the Legislature will be indefinitely shut out from influencing gambling.
“This could be our last possible chance to regulate gaming as a legislative body and I need not remind anybody of the fiscal implications, in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year,” he told lawmakers.
The Seminoles’ current deal with the state allows it to reduce or cut off payments to the state, now over $200 million annually, if other games are played that it believes impinges on any of its exclusive gambling rights.
The Senate bill also follows the House in outlawing pre-reveal games, slot machine-style video entertainment devices, most often placed in bars. A Tallahassee judge’s ruling that they’re illegal slots is under appeal.
Hialeah Republican Rene Garcia, who suggested leaving out that language while the issue is still with the courts, asked an industry lobbyist why people spend money on such games, which “preview” certain outcomes as to their winning or losing status.
“There is no answer to that,” said Christine Davis-Graves, lobbyist for Pace-O-Matic. “We can’t delve into the subjective mindset” of those who play, adding that one reason might just be “time wasting.”
In legal filings, Tribe outside counsel Barry Richard previously countered that pre-reveal players are “not wagering for the already revealed outcome, but rather on the next outcome, which is unknown.”
Players “are not … merely spending money to see spinning reels and flashing lights,” Richard wrote. “Rather, it is a slot machine, with which players are wagering on an unknown, unpredictable outcome” that they may or may not win. Other states, including Indiana and North Carolina, have found pre-reveal games to be illegal gambling.
Hutson earlier said he wouldn’t be able to please all of the gambling interests all of the time.
“Everybody wants a piece of the pie,” he said to the panel. “I wish I had two pies.”
4 comments
Thomas Jordan
February 12, 2018 at 10:48 pm
South Florida interests, Disney influence and the tribe get to plot the course of direction for our state and place a stranglehold on all of Florida.
What a poverty of justice and mockery of home rule that Gretna, one of the poorest communities in Florida, after having invested millions to develop interstate commerce at exit 174 on I-10 is cheated by the avarice of the tribe, the laziness of the Senate and the …well ….prejudice of the House.
The 2018 legislature is selling the soul of Florida to the Tribe in a deal so complex that voters will probably never understand it.
Please STOP…”know when to walk away if not run” and don’t make this deal for us voters.
Mr. Corcoran, please spare us the lecture of Home rule, you do not deserve to ever utter those words in your future campaign.
MICHAEL
February 13, 2018 at 10:46 am
The Seminoles made it clear. wipe out the designated player games, preveal games and fantasy sports and they will probably settle. Even if you try to bribe them with craps and roulette, having table game and slot competition will back them off. The State has been put on notice more than once.
Thomas Jordan
February 13, 2018 at 2:55 pm
Well put. Why would they want to get married to this domination and inflexibility for another 2 decades. I guess is is to kick the can down the road and pretend they solved the problem. DBPR gets to be the enforcement arm of the tribe every time the have a new issue and the House want to saddle DBPR and the legislature to this for the next 20 years.
Hard to fathom the shortsightedness for the sake of balancing the budget
Eric Keaton
February 13, 2018 at 6:39 pm
SB.840.!? Thats getting ripped 7 ways to sunday.. ha ha ha.. You can take that the bank. House wanting a contraction is nothing more than an admittance of Florida being a gambling state.
Gretna – Tighten your seat belt.!! Come Nov.. Every county will have a fair shot. Same shot Broward and Dade took when they legalized ‘SLOTS’… only this time Roulette will be the high target.. Do you know thats worth.??
Heaven is coming to Florida. The day when the people put the power to authorize gambling back into the rightful hands of American VOTERS..!! You politicians have proven yourselves to be nothing more than a bucket of snakes. And you have the nerve to call yourselves sharks.. Your crooked..
The budget will be stablized, not by the legislature.. but by the people. Florida is carried by the voice of the people. I continue to advocate that the original compact is illegal in that it inhibits American Citizens voters’ rights. Voters legalized slots by referendum in Broward and Dade. That legal right was not afforded to any other county.. Hence that language must be removed from the compact. Florida is a Gambling State. And will soon become a Recreational state for marijuana – along with politicians denying such..
Florida – You have been nothing more than a impediment to every county who voted in rightful referendum to legalized slots. This compact is poorly written and unconstitutional. It will never be a 3.way chess game to be won if Voters are constantly being sidelined..
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