Example - The tribes won Florida and LVS lost

The Seminole Tribe of Florida will resume gambling payments to the state

WFSU | By The News Service of Florida - Published December 11, 2023 at 9:17 AM EST

news.wfsu.org/state-news/2023-12-11/the-seminole-tribe-of-florida-will-resume-gambling-payments-to-the-state

The Tribe on Nov. 7 began accepting mobile sports bets from a limited number of gamblers and went statewide in early December

Amid a celebrity-fueled launch of new casino games this week, the Seminole Tribe intends to resume making payments to the state as part of a 30-year deal that included giving the tribe control over sports betting.

Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and chairman of Hard Rock International, told The News Service on Friday that the tribe expects to pay the state at least $650 million over the next year as part of the 2021 deal, known as a compact.

“The compact is now back in full force, and the tribe is abiding with the full terms of the compact,” Allen, speaking from Tampa, said. “It’s certainly our intention to comply with the compact in our relationship with the state. Obviously, we’re just launching all this stuff today.”

Allen did not specify when the tribe would begin making payments or how much the first payment would be, saying they would be made pursuant to the terms of the compact.

Under the three-decade deal, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. and ratified by the Legislature, the Seminoles agreed to pay Florida about $20 billion, including $2.5 billion over the first five years of the agreement. The amount would dip by $50 million a year if sports betting — which has been the subject of state and federal court fights — isn’t in effect, essentially guaranteeing the state an annual minimum payment of $450 million.

The deal also authorized the Seminoles to offer craps and roulette at their casinos and add three casinos on tribal property in Broward County. It also allowed pari-mutuels to contract with the Seminoles and share revenue from sports betting.

Allen said Friday the tribe has tried to work with all of the state’s 32 pari-mutuel operators.

“We're actively working with 16 of them. I believe we just launched five of them today,” he said.

The tribe’s expansion of gambling was on hold for more than two years amid the legal battles over part of the deal that allows gamblers to place mobile sports wagers anywhere in the state, with bets handled by computer servers on tribal property. The deal said bets “using a mobile app or other electronic device, shall be deemed to be exclusively conducted by the tribe.”

Two pari-mutuel companies have argued the sports-betting plan violated a federal law and a 2018 state constitutional amendment because it would allow people to place wagers while off tribal property.

The Seminoles, however, began moving forward after the U.S. Supreme Court in October refused to block sports betting while a broader legal battle plays out.

The tribe on Nov. 7 began accepting mobile sports bets from a limited number of gamblers and went statewide this week. The Seminoles launched the new table games and sports books with blowouts at their South Florida facilities on Thursday and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa on Friday. Musical performers including Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Jon Bon Jovi and Bruno Mars and sports figures such as Mike Tyson, Dwyane Wade and Hulk Hogan were among the celebrities attending the events.

The rollout of the new games kicked off at the Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood.

The ceremony was “truly beautiful,” Allen said, “because it’s obviously the birthplace of Native American gaming. … So I think to be in that building where it all started, it was just a perfect way to launch.”

The casino opened as the country’s first large-stakes bingo hall in 1979, before expanding into other games, according to the tribe’s website.

The court battles, however, aren’t over. The pari-mutuel companies West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. are expected to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appellate-court ruling that upheld a U.S. Department of the Interior decision to allow the compact to move forward. The Department of the Interior oversees gambling on tribal land.

Also, lawyers for the pari-mutuel companies have asked the Florida Supreme Court to block the sports-betting provision in the compact. They argue that it violates a constitutional amendment requiring voter approval of casino gambling in the state.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Friday, the tribe’s lawyers said the sports-betting provision does not violate the amendment because the compact says bets made on mobile devices anywhere in the state are deemed to take place on tribal lands.

The 2018 amendment, known as Amendment 3, also preserved the state’s ability to negotiate and carry out gambling compacts with tribes, the Seminoles’ lawyers wrote in the 33-page brief.

“Thus, under the plain language of Amendment 3, the Legislature was well within its authority to deem the placement of the online sports betting wagers, where aspects of each transaction occur both on and off tribal lands, to occur exclusively where accepted on tribal lands as a matter of law,” the tribe’s attorneys wrote.

The Seminoles first entered into a compact with then-Gov. Charlie Crist in 2007. But Republican legislators challenged the deal in court, arguing that it required ratification by lawmakers. The Florida Supreme Court sided with the Legislature, resulting in a revised compact that allowed the Seminoles to operate slot machines, which were already permitted at pari-mutuel facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and gave the tribe “exclusive” rights to conduct banked card games such as blackjack and baccarat.

But the Seminoles in 2019 halted payments to the state of more than $350 million a year because of a drawn-out dispute over controversial “designated player” card games offered at many pari-mutuels. The tribe ceased the annual payments after a series of court rulings.

New Florida Gambling Bill puts Miami Dade Casino opponents on High Alert
DEC 23
pechanga.net/new-florida-gambling-bill-puts-miami-dade-casino-opponents-on-high-alert-p40070-230.htm

A bill filed Thursday in the Florida Senate would allow for the relocation of gambling permits, prompting questions about whether the legislation is aimed at bringing new casinos to Miami-Dade County. Senate Bill 1054, filed by state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, says gaming permit holders should be allowed to transfer their permits to a new location. Under the legislation, those with greyhound dog racing permits and authorization to conduct casino activities could move their operation of "all pari-mutuel wagering and gaming activities” to a location within a 30-mile radius.

The moves would be allowed regardless of any local government regulations that might say otherwise, according to the bill language. The proposal set off alarm bells for gaming opponents who have sought to block the introduction of gambling to new areas of South Florida, including by opposing a casino at the Fontainebleau Hotel and Resort in Miami Beach.

"It’s an existential threat to our community,” said Dan Gelber, the mayor of Miami Beach until last month and a longtime anti-gaming advocate. In 2021, a $500 million deal negotiated by Gov. Ron DeSantis with the Seminole Tribe of Florida said the tribe could offer online sports betting across the state. As part of the agreement, the tribe said it would not oppose new casinos more than 15 miles from the tribe’s gambling hubs in the Hollywood area, including the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. That provision was seen by some as a favor by Florida Republicans to Donald Trump and his golf resort in Doral, and to Jeffrey Soffer, the billionaire real estate mogul whose family owns the Fontainebleau. Both facilities are slightly more than 15 miles from the Hollywood casino. Trump’s son, Eric, has called the Trump Doral "unmatched from a gaming perspective.” Soffer, meanwhile, has sought for years to transfer a gambling permit from his Hallandale Beach-based Big Easy Casino to the Fontainebleau, pitching elected officials on the idea in 2020 while wining and dining them on his megayacht.

The bill filed Thursday by Ingoglia doesn’t mention the Fontainebleau or Trump Doral. But it includes a provision that says gaming permit holders could not relocate their permits anywhere within 15 miles of any Seminole Tribe gaming facility in Broward County, mirroring language in the 2021 deal. Ingoglia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Soffer could not be reached. Gelber said the bill appeared to be an attempt "to deliver casinos over the objection of communities and notwithstanding Florida’s constitution.” The Miami Beach City Commission voted in 2017 to ban casinos and other gambling facilities citywide. In 2021, the Doral City Council approved a similar measure, banning casinos and gambling unless approved by residents in a referendum. A 2018 constitutional amendment approved in a statewide referendum gave voters the exclusive right to authorize casino gambling expansions, including slot machines and electronic betting games. The Seminole Tribe backed the amendment at the time. "If the Legislature goes along with [the bill] and the courts fail to do their job, there’s no way this will simply be a single casino,” Gelber said. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, has filed a bill that would allow gaming permitholders to transfer their licenses to new locations.

Continue Reading: Https://Www.Miamiherald.Com/News/Politics-Government/State-Politics/Article283398303.Html

Proposed Florida Bill Would Allow For Expansion Of Gambling. What Are The Chances It Will Pass? (CBS Miami)

Blaise Ingoglia Bill Could Open Gambling Options In The State (Florida Politics)

Citadel Founder Griffin Says Casinos are a Losing Idea for Florida

Posted on: January 31, 2024, Todd Shriber
www.casino.org/news/citadel-founder-griffin-doesnt-want-more-florida-casinos/

Ken Griffin, the founder and co-chief investment officer of Citadel, believes Florida is already on the right track, and more casinos could derail the state’s impressive economic trajectory.


Citadel founder Ken Griffin. He opposes casino expansion in Florida. (Image: Getty Images)

In a new op-ed for the Miami Herald, Griffin, whose hedge fund is one of the world’s largest, called new casino gaming expansion legislation before the Florida legislature a “threat to our shared prosperity.”

Currently, there are approximately 20 gaming venues in the state with Hard Rock-branded properties operated by the Seminole Tribe accounting for a plurality. Caesars Entertainment runs Harrah’s Pompano and there’s a smattering of other casinos strewn across South Florida.

As Griffin noted, in 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative stating casino gaming expansion in the state must be confirmed by voters, not politicians. Senate Bill 1054 and House Bill 1127 currently before those chambers amount to legislative gimmickry aimed at “sidestepping voters,” opined the billionaire.

Griffin Has a Unique Perspective on the Matter

Though not mentioned in his piece for the Herald, Griffin has an interesting perspective on the issue of some jurisdictions turning to casinos to generate jobs and bolster government coffers.

For decades, Citadel was based in Chicago, but in 2022, Griffin decided to move the hedge fund to Miami after one of his employees was held up at gunpoint on their way to get coffee in the Windy City. Illinois, including Chicago, has increasingly turned to casinos to shore up the state’s ailing finances and those of some cities. It’s a gambit Griffin doesn’t support.

Too often, local casinos earn a majority of their profits from residents with gambling problems. This leads to broken lives, shattered families and higher crime rates in the community,” he wrote in the Herald. “One can see the damage across numerous metrics. For example, nearby home values are reduced by the opening of casinos according to the National Association of Realtors.”

Griffin is a longtime donor to Republican candidates, putting him at odds with policymakers in deep blue Illinois. Crime and quality of life appeared to be the motivations for moving Citadel to Florida and, in the process, Illinois lost one of its biggest individual payers of income tax along with a slew of highly compensated Citadel staffers who moved to Miami.

Florida Alluring for Casino Operators, but Griffin Has Leverage

As the third-largest — and one of the fastest-growing states — Florida is undoubtedly compelling to casino operators, particularly those areas in which the companies could potentially establish new gaming venues without butting heads with the Seminoles.

Some gaming companies may be shrewd enough to consider other parts of Florida, but there are ongoing attempts to bring a casino resort to the Miami area. For example, Fontainebleau Miami Beach owner Jeffrey Soffer has donated heavily to Florida Republicans though it’s widely known the residents of Miami Beach don’t want a casino.

That’s where Griffin could flex his financial muscle. He’s worth an estimated $37.2 billion. It’s possible, though he didn’t mention anything to this effect, that he could pledge to support a 2028 White House bid by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) if the governor opposes casino expansion in the state. Those are to-be-determined factors, but it’s clear Griffin doesn’t want new gaming venues in South Florida.

“Allowing casinos to harm thriving communities and undermine Florida families is like willingly dumping toxic waste into the Everglades,” he concluded in the Herald. “Casinos are a bad bet for South Florida. We need to defeat this reckless legislation, defend our personal rights as voters, and protect Florida’s future.”

And their departure from Vegas too... especially juxtaposed against your comments. Getting out the USA = ok. Not moving the corporate headquarters to Singapore = strange. Spending over $100 million to bull doze their way through the tribe and into FL and Jacksonville, FL at that = un-understandable. Buying a basketball team to get Cuban on their team = maybe. Just doing what SA had planned before he passed = un-visionary. Family run business = lower profits.