Yesterday the Senate in Florida came up with radical plans for gambling expansion and just hours later the House proposed betting restrictions. Legislators in the House and Senate are so far apart on the gambling issue that it is hard to see a compromise being worked out even though the Florida US$6 billion budget deficit needs revenue from the gambling industry.

The Senate answer is to grant the Seminole casinos full table gaming status with roulette and craps added to the blackjack, baccarat and no-limit poker already being offered. In return the seven tribal casinos would pay four times the amount agreed under the Governor Charlie Crist compact, bringing annual payments to US$400 million. Under the Senate plan the legal age for gambling would be reduced to 18 from the present 21.

The Senate also proposes that pari-mutuels in the counties of Broward and Miami-Dade, where voters have already approved Class III gaming machines, should be allowed to offer blackjack and no-limit poker as well as pay less gaming tax. Other pari-mutuels throughout the state would get video lottery terminals. The gambling expansion would bring an estimated US$1 billion extra for education in Florida.

Draft legislation being promoted by House leaders would give the Seminoles 90 days to cease offering card games but allow them exclusivity on Class III slots outside South Florida for an annual payment of US$100 million. As the tribe is allowed to operate these machines under federal law, as the state sanctions them at Broward pari-mutuels, it is unlikely that the Seminoles would agree to this.

Supporters of Governor Crist’s gambling compact signed with the Seminoles have been lobbying to get it approved by the legislature, so far without success. The new draft proposals from the House and Senate will bring lobbyists from all sides of the gambling question – from the pari-mutuel operators who want a better deal to be able to compete with the tribal casinos, the Seminoles who are running a campaign to elicit public support to keep their card games and, always present, the anti-gambling lobbyists who want to restrict gaming despite the fact that Florida money flows into the Mississippi casinos. (E-03.25.09)

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