Voters Say Seminole Gaming Deal Is A Good Bet
By Keith Laing
The News Service of Florida
Wednesday, February 18, 2009

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE: People think Gov. Charlie Crist made a good deal when he negotiated to allow the Seminole Indian Tribe to provide high stakes slot machines and blackjack at their casinos, a poll released Wednesday showed.

The Florida Supreme Court may have balked at the Seminole agreement and the Legislature may still be wrangling over it, but according to a poll conducted by Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University's polling institute, voters overwhelmingly support the deal. The university surveyed 1,001 registered voters and found that 63 percent of them supported the Seminole Gaming Compact.

Non-Indian gaming operators and horse breeders have told lawmakers that the deal is bad for the pari-mutuel industry, which is not allowed to provide high stakes gaming. However, the Quinnipiac poll found voters would like to see that changed as well. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they supported legalizing gambling as a way of generating new revenue for the state.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University polling institute, said gambling is more popular now that it has traditionally been because the state's economy is worse now that it normally is.

"When the economy gets bad, voters begin to think about options they might not think about before," he said. "Its a reasonable assumption that anything that helps raise money in these times is popular and more popular than it would be were economic times good."

That's especially true in a tourism hub like Florida, Brown said.

"In Florida especially, anything like casinos also means revenue being taken from out-of-state residents and Floridians traditionally like those fees and taxes that helps defray their costs (to come) from out-of-state pockets," he said.

Brown added that the popularity of the Seminole deal may be tied to the soaring approval ratings of the man who negotiated it.

"Obviously the fact that Gov. Crist negotiated it, given his high standing with voters, gives it a little bit more oomph than just a generic question of do you like the idea of more gambling," Brown said. "He's negotiated the deal, they trust him, therefore they like the deal."

But Christian Ulvert, spokesman for the South Florida Gaming Coalition, which opposes the Seminole deal, said that voters were reacting to state's budget crunch in the poll more than the deal itself.

"What the public is responding to is the demand for new revenue for the state to fund education, health care and public safety," Ulvert said. "They have woken up to news stories about teachers being laid off and policemen being let go, so they recognize wherever there is a pot of money, legislators need to work toward bringing that in."

Ulvert said that non-Indian gaming operators have generated $286 million since slot machines were approved in Florida and could bring in more with a more balanced deal with the Seminoles.

"It's not that we aren't in favor of a compact, it's that the current compact is not the best deal for Florida," Ulvert said. "That's why we continue to inform the public of ways we can work with the Seminoles and the pari-mutuels of South Florida. That's what its really about, how do we work together to create the most jobs and bring the most money into Florida? We need to make sure we have a fair and competitive gaming industry in Florida."