A game of chance
Legislature should approve Seminole casino deal
An Editorial
Daytona Beach News-Journal
© 2009 News-Journal Corporation
Thursday, September 03, 2009
If the Florida Legislature convenes in special session next month to consider for approval the latest casino compact negotiated by the governor with the Seminole Tribe, lawmakers should start their review from this premise: More gambling is bad for Florida.
Bad, even if the negotiated deal assures the state $6.8 billion from casino receipts over the next 20 years, $150 million minimum the first year.
Gambling's toll on Florida is increasing. The Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling reports a 46 percent increase in problem gambling, especially from card games such as poker and blackjack, over the past three years, based on calls to the state's hot line. Thirty-three percent of callers say they have committed illegal acts due to their gambling; callers report an average gambling debt of nearly $60,000. The National Opinion Research Council in a 1998 study, the most recent on the subject, reported that problem and compulsive gamblers cost society some $5 billion a year plus $40 billion in lifetime costs for lost productivity and creditor losses. Under the proposed deal with the Seminoles, Florida would initially allocate about $4.5 million a year (3 percent of revenues) to be distributed among communities near Seminole casinos to address gambling-associated problems. Beyond that, local taxpayers would be left to pick up the added costs from domestic violence, crime, homelessness and other social problems associated with gambling.
That said, Gov. Charlie Crist has negotiated a better deal for the state than his first attempt in 2007 and as good a deal as the Legislature should expect. Lawmakers, in rejecting Crist's first go-round with tribe leaders, wanted a bigger share of proceeds and expanded gaming limited to four Seminole casinos, one in Tampa and three in South Florida. House leaders, hypocritically spouting anti-gambling rhetoric in opposing the Seminole's gaming expansion last spring, said they also wanted an option to permit slot machines at dog tracks, jai-alai frontons and other pari-mutuel establishments in the state where they would not compete with casinos.
But tribe leaders have held the leverage since voters in Broward and Miami-Dade counties approved Class 2 slot machines at pari-mutuels there, opening the door for expanded gaming in tribal casinos. Under federal law, the tribe has special rights to high-stakes slots in those counties, but very likely at all of its casinos, which it could readily confirm in court. For giving up a bigger share of its receipts -- $800 million more to the state -- the tribe insists on exclusive authority for operating slots outside of Broward and Miami-Dade counties and a provision to allow blackjack and other card games at all seven of its casinos. That would lock the pari-mutuel establishments elsewhere in the state -- including Daytona Beach's dog track and a dormant jai-alai licensed location in the city -- out of a chance to install slots. While the tribe's motive is to restrict competition for more profit, the deal would benefit the state by retarding gaming's expansion beyond the casinos and the two South Florida counties.
For that outcome and the additional revenues, lawmakers should approve the deal, thank the governor and ensure local communities sufficient state resources to address gambling-associated problems.
OK, it's a deal -- but let's rein in casinos
A COMMENTARY
By Mike Thomas
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Gambling is the state-sanctioned taking of money from suckers.
It's not the best enterprise for Florida to encourage.
But that battle was pretty much lost in 1986, when voters approved the Florida Lottery.
That opened the door. And the opposition to gambling, once rock-solid in this state, has crumbled ever since. We even had the mayor of Minneola recently proposing that his tiny town become the Las Vegas of Central Florida.
And now the only way to put the brakes on gambling is to expand gambling. Think of smoke jumpers starting fires to clear out brush and halt the oncoming inferno.
This is what Gov. Charlie Crist's new deal with the Seminoles would do. It is why Central Florida legislators should support the agreement. It keeps high-stakes gambling away from our borders by limiting it to one casino outside Tampa and a handful in South Florida.
That is how Crist should sell it.
Instead, his pitch hearkens back to the Florida Lottery campaign. We were told the proceeds would be a windfall for schools. Instead, for every lottery dollar that went into the education pot, the Legislature pulled one out to spend somewhere else.
School spending did not increase.
And now Crist is resurrecting this scam, proclaiming the Seminole deal would pump almost $150 million a year into education. Crist says this "will enable the state of Florida to invest in the future of Florida's children."
It's like he's trying to poison his own deal by basing it on something we know is a lie.
No new money
The deal not only would not boost education; it also would not bring new money into the state.
Tourists do not take gambling vacations to Florida. They go to Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Biloxi, where the casinos are bigger, the Elvis impersonators better and the games of chance more varied.
The Seminole casinos largely cater to an in-state crowd. You get a couple from Orlando heading over to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino outside Tampa to gamble instead of going to Winter Park Village for dinner and a movie.
The tax proceeds reaped at the Hard Rock will be counterbalanced by loss of sales taxes collected at The Cheesecake Factory. This illusion of creating more tax dollars is the same phony pitch used to sell sports facilities such as the new Magic arena.
Here are the real reasons to support this gambling deal:
The Seminoles have the right to run casinos on their reservations. They also are entitled to offer the same games at their casinos that the state allows at other casinos.
By upping the antes at pari-mutuels, voters and legislators have allowed the Seminoles to up the ante also. The Seminoles argue that a 2004 statewide referendum allowing more-lucrative slot machines in Broward and Miami-Dade entitled them to more-lucrative games, including blackjack.
Florida could fight that, but it would be a huge gamble. And if the state loses, it could be cut out of any proceeds from the Seminole casinos.
Crist smartly decided to cut a deal.
The first one he reached in 2007 was thrown out because he didn't run it by the Legislature for approval. The second one, reached this week, will go to the Legislature.
It is a better deal in that Florida's cut goes from $100million to $150 million. It allows for blackjack, baccarat and other table games at all seven Seminole casinos.
Foes object to allowing all those games at all seven Seminole casinos.
I don't understand the concern. A casino is a casino is a casino. The method by which dupes give away their money seems to be a rather moot point to me.
What gambling foes should focus on is stopping the spread of casinos. And this deal effectively does that. If the state allows casinos to spread beyond South Florida, the Seminoles can stop making their payments.
This has the pari-mutuel industry screaming foul.
These people are in a bind. Losing money while watching animals run around an oval is losing its allure.
The owners of these facilities somehow think it is the state's responsibility to keep their failing business model in business.
This led to legalized penny-ante poker in pari-mutuels in 1997. Still they whined. In 2003, the Legislature upped the $10 poker pots to as much as $200. Still they whined. And then that was upped in 2007 to high-stakes Texas Hold 'em.
I wonder why legislators didn't allow poker games at Circuit City to keep it in business.
Still not enough?
Crist's deal with the Seminoles gives the pari-mutuels even more, the one part of the deal I don't like. They would be allowed to have no-limit poker games, operated 24 hours a day, with nearby automated tellers so gamblers could wipe out the family savings account.
And still the pari-mutuels complain it is not enough.
Nothing will be enough for them until they can convert to full-scale casinos. And then we would have them ringing the state and invading Central Florida. Blocking the Crist-Seminole deal keeps that option open.
Mike Thomas can be reached at mthomas@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5525.