Southwest Florida may come
out winner in gaming deal
Seminoles, state close in on new gambling accord

By Bob Rathgeber
© 2009 Ft. Myers News-Press
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Florida Legislature and the Seminoles are getting closer to a gambling deal, and the outcome will likely be a win-win for Southwest Florida gaming interests.

Immokalee’s Seminole Casino will keep its blackjack tables and Las Vegas-style slot machines, and the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track in Bonita Springs will get some expanded forms of gambling — bingo-based betting machines, longer hours and bigger poker buy-ins.

The deal would immediately inject about $450 million into the state budget.

Florida and the Seminoles have been negotiating a contract for more than three years. One was struck down by the Florida Supreme Court, and the House derailed Gov. Charlie Crist’s latest attempt last year.

“Anything’s better than nothing,” said Izzy Havenick of Miami, whose family owns the local dog track. “I think they are close to a deal, which is good.”

Clearly, though, he’s disappointed.

“This is like putting a Band-Aid on when you need stitches,” Havenick said.

Under the terms of the deal, the state’s pari-mutuel dog and horse tracks and jai-alai frontons will get video bingo and historic race machines as long as the games don’t operate like slot machines, to which the Seminoles demand exclusivity.

“The bingo machines would be some sort of pull tabs,” Havenick said. “I don’t think we’d even put those in. The instant racing machines ... depending on what version, we’d talk about that.”

Havenick and pari-mutuel lobbyists have been pushing for video lottery terminals, similar to slot machines.

But the Seminoles have not budged, demanding the sole right for slot machines except in Broward and Miami-Dade counties where voters approved slots.

“The issue of exclusivity (for a gaming compact) has always been the primary issue,” said Barry Richard, a Tallahassee attorney who represents the Seminoles.

“The question is if the Senate is going to be willing to reach the level of exclusivity that the tribe believes it needs,” Richard said.

Among the points still outstanding: a definition of what kind of machines would be allowed at pari- mutuels and how many would be permitted at each location.

Lawmakers are pushing for 500 to 1,000 per facility and more leeway in what they can look like.

“The machine ... it depends what it allows the patron to do,” Richard said, “if it poses a competitive threat and jeopardizes the tribe’s ability to achieve what the tribe agrees to ...” Richard said.