Florida House and Senate at odds over gambling
House proposal sets tighter limits on
games for casinos and racetracks
By Josh Hafenbrack
Tallahassee Bureau
© 2009 South Florida Sun Sentinel
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
TALLAHASSEE: Gambling has never been a popular cause in the Florida House.
So it's little surprise that even as the House advanced legislation Monday raising betting limits at poker rooms, conservatives in the Republican-run chamber sent a message to their counterparts in the gambling-friendly Senate: there's not much wiggle room in the debate over a new deal with the Seminole tribe.
The Senate has proposed allowing Seminole resorts to have full casinos with craps and roulette, while authorizing blackjack at South Florida tracks. Bingo-style slots would be OK'd statewide, in a far-reaching and potentially lucrative expansion.
The House is taking a different approach. That chamber would shut down blackjack tables at tribal resorts including Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, limiting the Seminoles to slots. South Florida tracks would get a lower tax rate on slot machines and higher poker betting limits, under the bill approved Monday. Poker rooms could also operate around-the-clock, instead of 12 hours a day.
The competing proposals could be up for floor votes as early as this week, leaving a little over two weeks to work out a deal before the Legislature's scheduled May 1 adjournment.
Despite the scaled-back parameters of the House bill, Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, still lost four votes in Monday's committee – all from conservatives who viewed raising poker limits as a gambling expansion.
"That just confirms the difficulty of this exercise," Galvano said after the vote. "You saw, there were four votes I didn't get there today. There's not a lot of room. That's a political reality the Senate has to come to grips with."
One of the no votes was Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapley, who is in line to become speaker in 2012. He said he's "not a big fan of gambling in general" and didn't like the new poker limits, which would create a $50 betting limit, up from $5. No-limit Texas hold 'em games would have a maximum $1,000 buy-in, up from $100.
"Definitely, this is as far as I think we could go" in the House, Weatherford said.
Still, the Senate and gambling proponents are holding out for blackjack, perhaps through local referendums in Broward and Miami-Dade counties where voters already approved slots. Earlier this month, the House's No. 2 in command, Rep. Ron Reagan, indicated blackjack wasn't completely far-fetched, even in a chamber that's long resisted gambling efforts.
"If it's written correctly, we probably could" pass some form of blackjack, said Reagan, R-Sarasota, who is the speaker pro tempore and former majority whip.
The gambling debate figures prominently into the Legislature's fight over how to close a $6-billion budget gap. The House plan would generate $373 million for next year's budget and $282 million a year after that, according to an economic analysis.
The Senate plan creates a bigger windfall, generating $568 million in the first year.
House committee OKs plans to help pari-mutuels
By Sara Kennedy
Bradenton Herald Reporter
skennedy@bradenton.com
© 2009Bradenton Herald
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
MANATEE — A plan approved Monday would help pari-mutuel businesses like the Sarasota Kennel Club to become more competitive through extended hours and higher wagering limits, while those that currently operate slot machines would enjoy a reduced tax rate, officials said.
A House committee voted 15-4 in favor of a proposal that pari-mutuel businesses be allowed more flexibility so they might better compete with casinos, said Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, after the meeting in Tallahassee.
“I’m very pleased we’ve moved the bill out of committee,” he said, estimating it would come to the floor of the House for a vote later this week.
“We’re ready to continue negotiation with the Senate,” Galvano added.
The plan extends hours of operation for card rooms, like the one at the Sarasota club, from 12 hours to 24 hours; it increases wager limits from $5 to $50 per bet, and the buy-in for no-limit Texas Hold ’Em from $100 to $1,000, according to a summary of the legislation.
The plan addressing the state’s 27 pari-mutuels is linked to a proposed agreement with The Seminole Tribe of Florida, said Galvano, chairman of the House Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review. The Tribe operates seven casinos statewide.
Under the two-part House proposal, pari-mutuels would pay the state a minimum of $140 million in revenue, with the Seminole Tribe contributing another $270 million in the first year, for a total of at least $410 million annually “without a full-on expansion of gaming,” Galvano said.
The Sarasota club might close if the state OKs an agreement that puts it at a competitive disadvantage, its owner has said. But with recession draining the usual sources of state revenue, legislators say changes in gaming laws would add multi-millions each year.
The House proposal would also lift some restrictions on racetrack pari-mutuels, allowing those already racing quarter horses to convert to thoroughbred racing if they could meet certain requirements, Galvano said.
The House plan calls for lowering the tax rate from 50 to 36 percent with the lower rate tied to a minimum annual payment for three pari-mutuel businesses in South Florida that already operate slot machines, he added. It also lowers slot machine license fees from $3 million to $2 million.
However, it prohibits expansion elsewhere of slot machines or card games like blackjack and baccarat, Galvano noted.
A new gaming agreement could generate $2 billion in tribe resort construction in Florida, with 29,000 new jobs associated with the casino business, according to a legislative analysis of the proposal.
However, pari-mutuel businesses are in a decline that would be hastened by such increased competition, and other leisure industries, such as lodging and restaurants, would also be negatively affected, it said.
Resort and convention businesses alone would experience a loss of $100 million as a result of competition from the tribe’s activities, it said.
Legislators are reviewing a 2007 agreement Gov. Charlie Crist negotiated with the tribe, which operates a casino in Tampa, 40 miles north of Manatee County.
That agreement authorized the tribe to offer slot machines and granted exclusive rights to card games like blackjack and baccarat, but it was struck down by the courts on grounds that it needed legislative approval.
The Legislature’s two chambers are fielding differing proposals. The House version would strip tribe casinos of the right to operate card games like blackjack and baccarat, but OK exclusive rights to operate slot machines in counties that currently do not have them.
The Senate plan would allow the original terms of the compact in addition to a considerable expansion of gaming options, such as roulette, craps games and card games for non-tribal businesses, and video lotteries all over the state.
Florida business groups endorse Seminole Compact
Contributed by James VanLandingham
Ron Sachs Communications
© 2009 Naples News
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — Citing the need for jobs and investment to kick-start Florida’s flagging economy, two of Florida’s leading business groups declared their strong support today for the Seminole Compact negotiated by Gov. Charlie Crist.
The Florida Retail Federation and the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association endorsed the Compact and called for its ratification to create new Florida jobs and spur hundreds of millions in new investment and economic impact.
“The Seminole Compact is exactly the invigorating jolt of investment that Florida needs to strengthen our ailing economy,” said Rick McAllister, president of the Florida Retail Federation. “We support the Compact and call for its ratification as soon as possible.”
The Seminole Tribe of Florida has committed to significant expansion at four of its casino complexes if the Florida Legislature ratifies the Compact, which will create 45,000 new Florida jobs that will stay in Florida and cannot be outsourced.
According to economic projections, the Compact will inject hundreds of millions of dollars into Florida’s economy in the form of payrolls by direct employment by the Tribe, as well as millions more from construction jobs, development contracts and an economic multiplier effect that will ripple through thousands of businesses across Florida.
“The economic benefits from ratifying the Seminole Compact would not be limited to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, but would ripple across all of Florida’s economy,” said Carol Dover, president and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. “That is why we endorse the Seminole Compact and support its ratification by the Florida Legislature.”
There is no other plan under legislative consideration today that offers so many new jobs and so many needed dollars at a time when Florida is losing both.
Education groups including the Florida Education Association, the Florida Association of District School Superintendents and the Florida School Boards Association have also endorsed the Seminole Compact as a ready solution to help stave off devastating cuts in education.
The Compact would yield $288 million to the state budget this year, with a minimum of $2.5 billion in additional funds over the next 25 years, and the governor has called for 95 percent of these funds to support education.
The Florida Retail Federation is a statewide trade association founded in 1937 to protect Florida's retailers by lobbying the state Legislature and by providing cost-saving services. FRF was founded to promote a healthy, free enterprise system in Florida, and its purpose is to strengthen and support a favorable business environment where retailers and their suppliers can grow and prosper.
The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association was established in 1946 to represent Florida’s restaurant industry. Since that time, the scope of FRLA’s representation has expanded to include the entire hospitality industry including lodging establishments, restaurants and thousands of suppliers to the industry.
Poker stakes at dog track could go up if new bill passes
By Micael Peltier
© 2009 Naples News
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — High stakes poker would be on tap for the Naples/Fort Myers Greyhound track under a measure approved Monday by a House committee to level the playing field between Indian casinos and pari-mutuels around the state.
By a 16-4 vote, the House Select Committee on Seminole Gaming Compact approved a more conservative expansion of gambling than that proposed by a competing Senate plan, which calls for expanding gaming at non-Indian facilities across the state.
The House measure would raise betting limits and lower taxes for existing pari-mutuel facilities but prohibit the expansion of slot machines to non-Indian casinos. The proposal would also prohibit blackjack at Indian facilities.
Both bills are attempts to make existing pari-mutuels better able to compete with Las Vegas-style gambling to be allowed at seven casinos operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, including the tribe’s Immokalee facility.
Lawmakers are attempting to hammer out an agreement with the tribe after the Florida Supreme Court struck down a deal forged between the tribe and Gov. Charlie Crist.
Some members criticized the measure, saying backers were being disingenuous by claims that increasing operating hours and betting limits but preventing new facilities from opening was holding the line on gaming in the state.
“Tell me how this is not an expansion of gambling,” said Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, one of four members to vote against the plan.
Key provisions of the plan include reducing the tax on existing pari-mutuels, which are now taxed at least 50 percent. The House plan would tax non-Indian pari-mutuel facilities at double the Seminole tax rate.
The measure also expands hours of operation from 12 hours to 24 hours a day while raising allowable bets from $5 to $50. Texas Hold em’ buy-ins would rise from $100 to $1,000.
Unlike the Senate plan, the House version would prohibit blackjack from both Indian casinos and non-Indian pari-mutuels.
Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, and chairman of the committee, said the measure was a compromise that allows for greater parity between existing pari-mutuels and Seminole casinos without expanding gambling to other parts of the state.
In a nod to House conservatives, Galvano said the measure was a measured response to the benefits that is far more restrictive than a competing proposal working its way through the Senate.
“We’ve come a very long way to create some equity against the backdrop of the political realities that exist in the Florida House of Representatives,” Galvano said.
Track owners welcomed the House proposal, saying it shows that the House is willing to bend on the gambling issue, of which it has historically been more vehemently opposed.
“We’re in a good place right now,” said Izzy Havenick, whose family owns greyhound racetracks in South Florida and Lee County. “It’s very encouraging seeing both chambers taking gambling seriously and realizing that Florida has gambling and can benefit from it.”
Havenick said the bill’s biggest affect for its Lee County pari-mutuel would be the higher Texas Hold em’ buy-in, saying most of the facility’s poker players prefer the popular game.
The Senate plan calls for a broader expansion of gaming including allowing blackjack and slot machines at pari-mutuels around the state.
The competing proposals will become the grist for negotiation between the chambers in the weeks to come.
“So far, so good,” said Benny Collette, general manager of the Fort Pierce Fronton in St. Lucie County. “It’s early yet, though and it looks like this will be determined in conference.”
Pari-mutuels get boost from House committee
Lawmakers cite casino competition
Bill Cotterell
© 2009 Pensacola News_Journal
News Journal Capital Bureau
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — A special House committee sweetened the pot Monday for pari-mutuel gambling operations that face tougher competition from Seminole casinos.
Tracks and jai-alai frontons operating in Southeast Florida would get longer hours for their card rooms, far bigger pots and a lower tax rate on their slot machines, in return for a guarantee of $140 million in tax revenue for the state.
But the prospect of expanded gambling in Florida caused four members of the House Select Committee on Indian Compact Review to vote against the plan, which now goes to the House floor.
Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, who chairs the committee said the pari-mutuel plan does not allow any new types of games or new locations.
Without it, he said, the pari-mutuels that have operated for decades in Florida would be at a severe competitive disadvantage with the new Seminole casinos.
A separate committee bill provides for ratification of the Seminole gaming pact that Gov. Charlie Crist negotiated with the Florida tribe.
The House plan abolishes the 12-hour limit on operation of card rooms and increases the betting limit from $5 per round to $50, and from $100 for buy-in on Texas hold 'em to $1,000.
The tax rate on slots would be lowered from 50 percent to 36 percent.
Reps. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel; Alan Hays, R-Umatilla; Marti Coley, R-Marianna and Juan Zapata, R-Miami, voted against the package.
"I think it's important that we have some type of equity for the pari-mutuels. I'm not out to hurt them, but I saw those two components as an expansion of gambling," Coley said.
House gaming bill stays lean
By Catherine Dolinski
cdolinski@tampatrib.com
© 2009 Tampa Tribune
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Parimutuels would get a tax break, but no new games, under legislation headed for debate on the House floor later this week.
The House and Senate are both pushing bills to boost the state's nontribal gambling industry to offset a proposed new gaming compact with the Seminole tribe.
A House panel on gaming approved a bill Monday that chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said would "level the playing field" for parimutuels by cutting the tax rate on Vegas-style slot machines from 50 percent to 36 percent but with $140 million guaranteed for the state and reducing the license fee. The bill would allow card rooms to operate 24 hours daily, and increase their minimum wager and buy-in limits.
The Senate has a final committee hearing today on its parimutuels bill, which would expand substantially the kinds of games offered across the state in addition to loosening regulations and lowering the slots tax rate. The Senate is likewise proposing to let the Seminoles keep their blackjack tables, whereas the House wants to make the tribe give them up.
Galvano said he expects the House bill to reach the floor this week. Negotiations between the two chambers have far to go, he said, but there is a firm contingent of opponents in the House to anything resembling a gambling expansion.
Noting that he lost four votes in his committee for the more modest House parimutuels bill, he said, "That's a political reality the Senate has to come to grips with."