Bonita track owner rips Seminole gaming deal
news-press.com Capital bureau
© Copyright 2009 The News-Press
Tuesday, September 02, 2009
TALLAHASSEE - Izzy Havenick, whose family owns the Naples Fort Myers Greyhound Track in Bonita Springs and another dog track in Miami-Dade County said the gambling deal Gov. Charlie Crist signed with the Seminole Indians on Monday is not good for the state.
Havenick, vice president of Southwest Florida Enterprises, called the new compact "a terrible deal."
"The revised compact clearly favors one corporate entity over an entire industry that employs thousands of Floridians and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to Florida's tax base each year," said Havenick.
He said it is "patently absurd" for the compact to let the Seminoles stop making payments from Broward County casino earnings, if any Miami-Dade tracks begin operating slot machines.
"The revised compact will cost thousands and thousands of Floridians their jobs and the state and local governments will lose hundreds of millions of dollars in reliable, recurring tax revenue," Havenick said.
Key provisions of the deal allow the tribe to run slots and card games at casinos in Coconut Creek, Tampa, Brighton, Immokalee, Clewiston and two Broward locations. The state would get at least $150 million a year on a graduated scale rising to more than $500 million in 2029, with 97 percent of the money going to schools.
But if the state allows casinos outside Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, all bets are off - the tribe would no longer make any payments. The tribe could also reduce its payments to the state proportionately if existing casinos in Miami-Dade and Broward start offering blackjack and cut into Seminole casino profits.
Crist, whose 2007 deal with the Seminoles was quashed by the Florida Supreme Court, said the new plan he signed on Monday was an improvement - guaranteeing the state at least $150 million a year, up from $100 million.
Over 20 years, the state would net about $6.8 billion under the deal, but some legislative leaders said it raised "red flags" about expansion of tribal gaming into areas where pari-mutuel tracks and frontons are already hurting.
Deal may be a dud for local tracks
By Steve Huettel
Times Staff Writer
© 2009 • St. Petersburg Times
Monday, August 31, 2009
People who earn a living at the Derby Lane greyhound track hoped the state's new gambling deal would toss them a bone.
Instead, they say, the struggling St. Petersburg track came away with just a few crumbs.
The Seminole Indian Tribe, owners of the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, got to keep exclusive rights to blackjack and slot machines everywhere outside South Florida.
"They're getting everything they asked for,'' said Derby Lane spokeswoman Vera Filipelli. "It's about not being able to compete with them.''
Florida jai alai frontons, and tracks, including Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar and Tampa Greyhound Track, won a few concessions in the agreement, which would require the Legislature's approval to go into effect.
Limits on betting in their poker rooms would be lifted. Also, they could install up to 300 gambling machines, based either on electronic bingo games or recorded horse races. In the so-called Class II games, players compete against each other instead of playing against the house.
But the machines specified in the deal are older and less sophisticated than the type the Seminoles already largely replaced in their casinos with Las Vegas style slots, said Filipelli. Gamblers "won't even be interested in them,'' she said.
Florida's parimutuels, including horse tracks, dog tracks and jai alai frontons, have suffered a long decline, with gamblers moving to flashier games. Parimutuels took in $1.2 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, compared to $2 billion two years earlier. Derby Lane collected $40.7 million last year, down 30 percent.
State Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, said legislators will examine the agreement when they convene in the coming weeks.
"If this takes the parimutuels and puts them out of business, that's not fair,'' he said. "We (legislators) have some sticking points with it.''
Steve Huettel can be reached at (813) 226-3384 or huettel@ sptimes.com.
No slots of any kind for Palm Beach in new gambling deal
by Dara Kam
Copyright 2009 The Palm Beach Post
Monday PM,August 31, 2009
The $12.5 billion deal Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminoles signed today takes slot machines off the table for the Palm Beach Kennel Club.
Track owner Pat Rooney Sr., his lobbyists and track owner Pat Rooney Sr. and some influential lawmakers had pushed for a Palm Beach County referendum in which voters could allow the track to expand its gambling operations to include slot machines. Senate President Jeff Atwater’s district includes the dog track.
But even the possibility of slots of any kind in Palm Beach County was a deal-breaker for the Seminoles, sources close to the negotiations said.
The final deal, which lawmakers must sign off on before it goes into effect, won’t allow slot machines or “slots-lite” - video terminals that look and play like the more lucrative Las Vegas-style slots - in Palm Beach or anywhere outside of Broward and Miami-Dade counties, where they are already permitted.
The Seminoles have agreed to pay the state $150 million a year or more, depending on how much their casino operations bring in, for 20 years in exchange for giving them exclusive rights to slot machine gambling throughout the state.
The tribe also gets to keep its blackjack games at all of its seven location although lawmakers had wanted that limited to the Broward County facilities and another near Tampa.