It's a big deal: No-limit poker on state's horizon
By Michel Vasquez
Miami Hearald Staff Reporter
© 2009 Miami Herald
Sunday, March 29, 2009For five days in 2007, big-money poker ruled the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood. Thanks to the casino's quite liberal -- and short-lived -- interpretation of state law, players could buy tens of thousands of dollars' worth of poker chips, or more. Gamblers reported seeing fellow players sauntering into the casino toting bags of money. Professional athletes, celebrities, and others with deep pockets swarmed in.
But the monster-size poker pots quickly disappeared because the Seminole Tribe feared running afoul of the state's poker laws. Now, squeezed by a budget deficit and desperate for new sources of money, Florida lawmakers may allow high-stakes poker back in, all over the state -- for good.
The Florida Senate has included the change as part of its ambitious proposal for expanded gambling -- something Senate leaders say would produce $1 billion a year in annual revenue dedicated to education.
The Senate's proposed new poker rules alone represent a dramatic shift in policy by Tallahassee, and could potentially turn Florida into a hotbed of national poker activity.
The Florida House, for now, is resistant to more gambling, with the issue set to dominate this spring's legislative session.
Currently, Florida law generally limits buy-ins to a maximum of $100. In poker tournaments, buy-ins can go a bit higher -- into the hundreds of dollars -- but not beyond that.
In addition to erasing those limits, the Senate plan would allow slots-style video lottery terminals at parimutuels across the state, and the Seminole Tribe would get the green light to offer full-fledged casino gambling that includes games such as roulette and craps.
Miami state Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who previously headed the House's gaming committee, said the Senate plan ``would risk changing the identity of our state.''
But Lopez-Cantera's tone softened when he was asked about the poker piece of that plan.
''That might be something I could live with,'' he said.
Right now, the high-stakes poker tournaments broadcast on ESPN and other cable networks don't come to Florida, although the state's tourism-dependent economy could arguably benefit from the promotional nature of such shows.
Steve Lipscomb, founder and chief executive officer of the popular -- and globally televised -- World Poker Tour series, said each of his tournaments typically attracts 400 to 1,000 players, many from other parts of the country, who are eager to pay the $10,000 buy-in for a chance at poker fame.
''People will come and have a unique experience, not just in the casino, but in the community,'' Lipscomb said. ``And those people actually come back and bring other people with them.''
Lipscomb said the program, now in its seventh season, was in serious talks several years ago with the Seminole Tribe -- with plans to bring a WPT event to its Hard Rock Casino near Hollywood.
But Florida's poker rules killed the proposed tournament, Lipscomb said.
''We were ready to make a deal, and we couldn't get around that,'' Lipscomb said. ``Doing a $500 event just isn't what we do.''
Players often complain that the current $100 maximum buy-in leaves no room for much of the strategy that can be brought to the game, turning Florida's poker tables into something of a game of chance rather than skill.
Florida players ''don't have enough chips in front of them to play out the bets and raises that are required in the skillful aspect of the game,'' poker pro and Miami native Vanessa Rousso said.
When told about the complaint that Florida's rules get in the way of skill, state Rep. Bill Galvano -- another key figure on gaming issues in the Florida House -- responded, ``I'm open-minded to looking at that.''
Of course, just about every poker player comes to the table thinking he is skilled, and the state's Council on Compulsive Gambling warns that those with an addiction to the game will likely suffer greater losses if the $100 cap is removed.
Florida's $100 cap arrived in 2007, replacing a much stricter limit of $2 a bet. In the time that poker players have enjoyed these higher stakes, the average debt load of poker addicts has gone up dramatically, according to the Council on Compulsive Gambling.
In November 2007, a few months after the $100 cap arrived, poker addicts calling the state's gambling help line were an average of $27,221 in debt. Last month, that figure was $65,695.
Pat Fowler, head of the gambling council, dismissed talk that higher poker stakes reward skill, saying ``everyone has a theory.''
''I'm speaking from data on actual people and what that data looks like,'' Fowler said. ``With every expansion and increase, we've seen an increase in problem and compulsive gambling, and you can twist that and turn it any way you want to.''
The Senate's bet is too big, but House bet is too small
Palm Beach Post Editorial
© 2009 Palm Beach Post
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Visitors to the Senate chambers in Tallahassee shouldn't be surprised if one day soon they find giant electronic billboards, brilliant cascading fountains and parading lines of showgirls.
The Senate has gone Vegas.
Gambling in Florida
The Senate would allow roulette, craps and more high-stakes card games in more places, permit video lottery terminals and lower the gambling age from 21 to 18.
The House would cut the number of high-stakes games Seminoles could offer and opposes expanded gambling elsewhere.
Two bills advancing in the Senate would greatly expand gambling in Florida. Like all similar attempts, the lure is money for education. Like all similar attempts, the claims are suspect. Like all similar attempts, the House is grumpy about the idea of more gambling.
The Senate would let the Seminole Tribe add roulette and craps at its casinos, which already offer Vegas-style slot machines, blackjack and baccarat. Racinos - Miami-Dade and Broward racetracks that voters allowed to run Vegas-style slot machines - would get to add blackjack and other high-stakes card games. The Senate also would cut taxes on the slots income to 35 percent from 50''percent and lower the legal gambling age from 21 to 18. Other parimutuels, such as the Palm Beach Kennel Club and Fort Pierce Jai-Alai, could add video lottery terminals. All this added gambling, its proponents say, could bring the state an extra $1 billion a year.
Gambling, though, is not recession-proof, as falling income for the Florida lottery and casinos across the country shows. Then there are the hidden costs of gambling, which can include addiction, crime and the diversion of "entertainment" dollars from other diversions.
The Senate's gambling extravaganza is the Vegas-style answer to a festering problem. Starting in 2004, when first state and then local voters approved slots for Miami-Dade and Broward racinos, the Seminoles said that, as a result, federal law automatically gave them the right to offer slots and all other high-stakes gambling as well. To claim a portion of that revenue for the state, Gov. Crist negotiated a "compact" that gave the tribe slots and exclusive rights to blackjack and baccarat in exchange for a minimum $100 million a year.
Though the Florida Supreme Court ruled the compact illegal because it lacked legislative approval, the Seminoles continue to offer the games. Racinos and other parimutuels continue to complain that competition from the tribe is killing them. The Senate would solve the mess by buying everybody off.
It is way too much. But given the rights the Seminoles may have under federal law, the plan offered by House leaders is too little. In exchange for a minimum $100 million a year, the House would give the Seminoles slot machines only. Racinos would get nothing extra. Other parimutuels might get video lottery terminals if local voters approved.
There's no reason to expect the Seminoles to give up blackjack and baccarat and still pay essentially what they promised under the voided compact. But the House is right to focus primarily on reaching a new deal with the tribe rather than, as the Senate has proposed, bringing new elements of Vegas to every one of the 26 parimutuel outlets in the state. According to a Senate analysis, that would be 16 greyhound tracks, six jai-alai frontons, three thoroughbred tracks and one harness track.
Bright lights and the lure of easy money have dazzled the Senate. But what happens in Vegas should not happen in Florida.
Rubio, professor warn of expanded gambling’s human costs
By MARY ELLEN KLAS © 2009 Miami Herald
Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Saturday, March 28, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — The hidden costs of expanded gambling in Florida include more compulsive
gambling, increased crime and a government addicted to revenue generated by people’s losses, a former House speaker and an economics professor warned lawmakers Friday.
Marco Rubio, former House speaker and U.S Senate candidate, joined leaders of the Christian Coalition and the Florida Baptist Convention at a news conference to condemn legislators for considering allowing more gambling in the state.
“There is a real moral issue with asking government to expand its operations to be increasingly dependent on an activity we should be discouraging, not encouraging,” said Rubio, a Republican from Miami.
He and former state Rep. Dennis Baxley acknowledged the state’s difficulties trying to provide sufficient government services while facing a $3 billion budget hole but warned that relying on gambling was a dangerous trade-off.
“This plan to expand predatory gambling with the tribes and with existing parimutuels will cause extensive damage to Florida families,” warned Baxley, a former Ocala legislator who now is director of the Christian Coalition of Florida.
For the state to collect a projected $1 billion in revenues from gambling, Baxley said, gamblers would have to lose $7 billion.
“Some things you just don’t do, no matter how broke you are,” he said.
Baxley was among many Republican lawmakers who signed a no-tax pledge during his eight years in Tallahassee but Friday he said that to fill the budget hole he would prefer a broad-based tax increase over an increase in gambling.
“These are serious times,” he said. “But almost any budget-cutting or revenue enhancing plan would be better than the destructive plan that is being presented today.”
The Florida House is pushing a plan to allow the governor to enter into a gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that would allow the tribe to continue offering Las Vegas-style slot machines but halting blackjack and other house-banked card games. The tribe started operating Class III slot machines and card games such as blackjack at its Hard Rock casinos after reaching an agreement with Gov. Charlie Crist in November 2007, but the compact was later invalidated by a court.
A Senate committee this week passed a bill that takes gambling to the other extreme, giving the tribe full-fledged casinos, with games like roulette and craps. South Florida racinos would get blackjack. All other horse and dog tracks around the state would be allowed to operate video slot machines, which pit players against each other.
“It’s fool’s gold,” Rubio said, of the revenue a gambling expansion might generate. ‘‘Much of this money is already being spent elsewhere in the economy.”
The House committee charged with writing the gambling bills heard Friday from a Baylor University economist professor and anti-gambling advocate Earl Grinols, who testified that if Florida increases its gambling presence, it will see an increase in crime.
He said that half of all gambling revenues gleaned by casinos operations, particularly slot machines, are generated by problem or pathological gamblers. He said that most visitors to casinos live within 35 miles of a casino and if a casino is built in an already established tourist destination, it will siphon off business from existing companies.
“It’s not new revenue and it’s not new tourists even though it may get reported as new revenues,” he said.
Grinols, who was reimbursed $1,100 for his travel but received no speaker’s fee, cited anecdotal examples of horror stories about compulsive gamblers who committed suicide, ruined their family’s finances or committed felony crimes because of gambling addictions.
But several lawmakers challenged his assumptions and his data.
“I’ve listened to your presentation and now I’m afraid to go home,” said Rep. Joe Gibbons, a Hallandale Beach Democrat whose district includes two casinos established within the last two years. “And in those last two years, our crime rate has gone down.”
Grinols responded that it usually takes three years for new casinos to impact crime.
Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MiamiHerald.com
Bill Gives Seminole Tribe Slot Monopoly
By Mike Salinero
msalinero@tampatrib.com
© 2009 Tampa Tribune
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Seminole Indian Tribe would get a monopoly on big-payout slot machines across Florida but would have to give up casino games under legislation unveiled by the state House on Friday.
A proposed House bill would give the Seminoles exclusive rights to slot machines outside of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Voters in those counties have approved the slots for existing pari-mutuel gambling sites. In return for the monopoly, the Seminoles would pay the state $100 million a year, or 18 percent of the tribe's yearly take, whichever is higher.
The bill closely mirrors a compact Gov. Charlie Crist negotiated with the tribe in 2007. The main difference is the House bill would prohibit casino games such as blackjack, roulette or baccarat at the seven Seminole locations around Florida. The tribe would have to give up the blackjack tables it runs at the Hard Rock Seminole Casino in Tampa within 90 days of the legislation taking effect.
Seminole tribe councilman Max Osceola, speaking Friday to the House committee reviewing the proposed compact, did not say whether the tribe would approve the measure. But Osceola thanked House members for including tribe members in talks on the proposal.
The House bill is in response to legislation approved Wednesday by a Senate committee that goes much further. The Senate version would allow the Seminoles to add casino gaming to the slot machines they already have at their seven locations in Florida.
Dog and horse tracks and jai alai frontons outside South Florida would be allowed to have electric gambling games, under the Senate bill, while horse tracks in South Florida could offer blackjack.
The bill rolled out Friday reflects the House leadership's philosophical aversion to expanded gambling. It limits slot machines, the most profitable form of gambling, to the Seminole gaming houses, and holds the line elsewhere.
"The Senate's recommendation is pretty broad," House Speaker Larry Cretul said Friday.
But House members have an even greater distaste for raising taxes. They, like their Senate colleagues, are scrambling for ways to cover a $6 billion budget deficit.
And the reality is the Seminoles have a right to have slot machines under federal law because the machines are legal in South Florida.
Gambling, or school closures
By Mark Laane
Daytona Beach News-Journal
© 2009 News-Journal
Friday, March 27, 2009
Funny how only a year ago the Seminole gambling pact signed by Gov. Charlie Crist was an affront to the dignity and sovereignty of the Florida Legislature.
Now it's the rescue ship that gets us off this stinking island.
The Senate Regulated Industries Committee looked at some of the big things the Seminole Tribe wanted. Looked at some of the big things the pari-mutuel industry wanted. And threw in two or three things the gambling industry in general had been wishing and hoping for over the years. It threw them all together Tuesday, deliberated for 20 whole minutes and announced it had located about $1 billion in new money.
And House leaders, who last year were unalterably opposed to the Seminole gaming compact, said Tuesday they could live with a smaller version of the compact. They suggested the governor go out and sign himself one.
They calculated this could bring in $100 million a year in new money. Maybe. If the tribe signs on. Though perhaps not this budget year.
The careful reader might notice some disparity in these approaches.
The Senate version fills the state budget hole almost a third of the way.
The House version puts several spadefuls of dirt into next year's budget hole.
As of right now, the Senate version makes the governor, the Seminole Tribe, pari-mutuels and education people feel better.
The House version makes the pari-mutuels a little less unhappy. It's a non-starter with the Seminoles, exasperates members who are growing weary of cutting education and has the governor talking cheerfully about all the positive work the Senate is doing.
Guess which version has more momentum.
It is something of a law of Florida politics that gambling gets expanded whenever the state weathers a sustained recession. The pari-mutuel industry is a child of the Great Depression. The state lottery, approved by voters in 1986, was a delayed reaction to the downturn and education cuts of the early 1980s.
So no surprise that during a dire economic season, Florida would be poised for the biggest gambling expansion in decades and without all the fuss and bother of a constitutional amendment.
Included in the Senate version are full-service casinos for the Seminoles, as well as new games and lower taxes for South Florida pari-mutuels that now are allowed slot machines. And for pari-mutuels elsewhere in the state -- such as Daytona Beach's dog track -- new video lottery games that feel a lot like slots when you're pushing the buttons.
And for everyone in the gambling industry, the Senate would lower the minimum gambling age from 21 to 18. Which could make for an interesting addition to Spring Break here.
For those who had hoped the Seminole compact might quarantine large-scale casino gambling in South Florida, this is all a lot to absorb.
And for the leaders of the Florida House who thought they had come a long way by suggesting a gambling compact that's so limited nobody's interested in it, this must be mind-blowing.
But hey, it's this or cuts to education that would make last year's cuts look like a warm-up exercise. Particularly if the House also refuses to raise the cigarette and other taxes.
So that's the deal as presented by the Senate -- approve the casinos or the teacher here gets it.