Tribal gaming deal
Galvano panel should OK Crist compact
By Editorial Staff
© 2009 Bradenton.com
Friday, March 20, 2009
This deal’s straightforward. In negotiations with state government over a gaming compact, Florida’s Seminole Indian Tribe asks for exclusive rights to house-banked card games in exchange for a cut of the profits.
Gov. Charlie Crist made that deal last year, but the Legislature sued and the state Supreme Court ruled he lacked the authority to sign a compact. That put the issue before the Legislature.
At risk is an estimated $288 million in revenue sharing this fiscal year and the next one, which would help bail out Florida’s multibillion budget gap.
But the state House — with our own Rep. Bill Galvano leading the discussion as chairman of the House Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review — is balking at card games. Galvano plans to draft a bill requiring Crist to renegotiate with the tribe and allow slot machines but not card games.
We believe that strategy will fail to get the state a dime from the tribe.
The Seminoles maintain that federal law forbids tribal payments to state governments for gaming allowed in other enterprises, such as Florida’s parimutuels. Once voters approved slot machines in two South Florida counties, that ruled out revenue sharing from tribal slots anywhere in the state.
If the state does not grant the tribe an exclusive deal for card games, the Seminoles cannot give any money to the state.
We’re at a loss to understand the House position that the Seminoles will share revenue on slots in a compact that disallows card games. Under federal law, the House cannot mandate that.
Galvano’s Senate counterpart on compact negotiations, Sen. Dennis Jones, calls the slots-only alternative “a non-starter.”
We share the Senate’s concerns about avoiding increases in the property and sales taxes in order to balance the budget, and the fear that card-playing gamblers will take their business to other states.
Despite the state ruling and a U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting the demise of the Crist compact, the Seminoles continue to operate Vegas-style card games at its casinos.
In an Editorial Board meeting, tribal chairman Max Osceola Jr. and Hard Rock chairman and gaming operations chief executive Jim Allen also outlined the benefits of the compact that Crist had signed.
The biggest is jobs. The tribe, which already ranks as the state’s third largest private employer, expects to add 3,000 workers just for card games at its seven casinos, with an average annual salary of $48,000, including tips. Already, 2,000 people are on the payroll for those games. With plans to build iconic hotels and casinos at four of those sites, 45,000 additional jobs are expected to be created.
Over 25 years, the Crist compact got a tribal guarantee of $2.5 billion in revenue sharing, but Allen said projections show a total in excess of $10 billion.
Legislators are concerned about the impact on the state’s parimutuel industry — the dog and horse tracks and jai alai frontons — and industry lobbyists have been pleading with lawmakers to level the playing field by lowering their tax rate and allowing card games. Galvano does not expect the Legislature to trim that 50 percent tax rate for the parimutuels. Tax credits and other incentives are possible, a smart option, but card games would again halt tribal revenue sharing.
We respect the tribe’s unwavering patience over securing a state compact. Negotiations began in 1990, with various politicians stalling progress over the years.
The Seminoles, with sovereign rights guaranteed by the 10th and 11th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, can claim Florida is not negotiating in good faith and appeal to the U.S. government to impose a compact. That would eliminate revenue sharing.
That’s why Crist negotiated a compact in the first place, fearing the Department of Interior, which directed the state to enter into talks with the tribe, would authorize gambling and cut the state out of the deal.
The Seminoles have gone out of their way to be accommodating, too, agreeing with Crist to not expand gambling statewide to the tribe’s 90,000 acres of trust land. They also agreed to not seek dice or wheel games, such as craps and roulette.
We maintain our position that we prefer Florida be a family-friendly destination. But the reality is the Seminole Tribe will be able to keep operating slot machines with or without a state compact.
Galvano’s Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review next meets this morning. That panel, and the entire Legislature, should approve an exclusive deal on blackjack and other house-banked card games and bargain for as much revenue sharing as possible.
It’s well past time for the state to cut a deal.