Compact would cost Fla. revenue
Barbara Hecht Havenick: State, not Seminoles, holds cards in gaming deal

By: Barbara Hecht Havenick
Guest Opinion
Fort Myers News-Press
Wednesday, December 31, 2008

As the owner of a Lee County business that just marked its 51st anniversary and as an attorney, I am deeply disappointed in your Dec. 26 editorial "Put Casino Pact On Agenda."

Far from being a "sound" agreement, the now-voided compact with the Seminoles is a bad deal for Florida that will cost our state far more in recurring revenues and jobs than it will generate.

My family has owned Naples-Ft. Myers Greyhound Track since 1972 and we also own Flagler Greyhound Racing & Poker in Miami.

We currently employ 350 people in Naples and 250, at Flagler.

At both facilities we compete head-to-head with tribal casinos but with the disadvantages of offering substantially less gaming product, paying state and local taxes and adhering to tight regulatory restrictions.

The economic advantages currently enjoyed by the Seminole tribal casinos, however, pale in comparison to the terms of the now-voided compact that would cripple competing businesses.

Put simply, if the terms of the now-voided compact are reinstated we cannot continue to compete.

While that will obviously have dramatic ramifications on our businesses and employees, it will also have real, negative effects on our state that your editorial failed to consider.

The Seminole tribe has a documented history of ignoring the law and breaking deals.

In fact, the tribe's now-voided compact expressly sets out a number of ways that the Seminole tribe can cease payments to the state completely.

Perhaps the most blatant example is the provision giving the tribe the ability to cease payments if any illegal gaming is ongoing in the state, including side bets or office pools on sporting events and internet wagering.

Another provision allows the Seminole tribe to cease its payments to the state anytime the tribe's annual net revenues fall below $1.37 billion.

Your editorial also claims that the federal authorities will "readily" permit the Seminole tribe to offer games deemed illegal by the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida Legislature and the Attorney General.

Your position that "by all accounts" the Feds will inevitably grant the Seminole tribes these games is wrong.

Every court that has addressed the issue has found that a federal agency cannot force illegal tribal gaming on a state.

The National Indian Gaming Commission itself - the "federal authorities" to which you refer in your editorial - has issued notices of violations stopping similar illegal tribal gaming activities as recently as September of this year.

In addition to being a bad legal deal for Florida, the now-voided Seminole gaming compact is a bad financial deal.

The voided deal would have provided - if the Seminoles chose to pay - an average minimum annual payment to the state of just $103 million.

Due to the competitive windfall the Seminole tribe would have enjoyed under its deal, the state stood to lose approximately $500 million per year in recurring revenues from the Miami-Dade and Broward pari-mutuels alone caused by their never being able to compete at full operational capacity.

Contrary to your claim that the Seminole tribe is in the "driver's seat," right now the State of Florida holds all the cards.

And our state legislators must work to achieve a good deal for all of Florida, not just a good deal for the Seminoles.