Fla., Legislature's Special Session On Gambling Advances But Exposes Squeamishness

By Laura Cassels and Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix

May 17, 2021

Just before his panel voted Monday to advance legislation connected to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ big gambling deal, Republican Rep. Nick DiCeglie, from Pinellas County, confessed to mixed feelings.

“I have some serious concerns about whether or not this is expansion of gambling. And that is something that I have to, you know, work out internally. My conscience is going to come into play here,” said DiCeglie, chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Seminole Gaming Compact.

Notwithstanding those qualms, the subcommittee voted, 13-4, to advance House Bill 1-A, which would ratify the gambling compact. Its Senate companion (SB 2-A), meanwhile, advanced in that chamber’s Appropriations Committee with relatively little fuss.

DiCeglie’s was not the only squeamishness expressed during Day 1 of the Legislature’s special session on the gambling deal negotiated by DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. If approved, the compact would bring billions into Florida’s coffers but could expand the gambling landscape in ways that Floridians may or may not like.

During debate Monday before the Senate Appropriations Committee on whether to allow bingo games now reserved for charities to be played in pari-mutuel parlors, senators balked.

“Don’t mess with bingo,” said northwest Florida Republican Sen. George Gainer. With that, the bills pertaining to bingo were set aside in the Senate. They have no companion measures in the House of Representatives.

Earlier Monday morning, House Speaker Chris Sprowls removed another potential speed bump, announcing the elimination of one of the compact’s features most troubling to social conservatives in the House — language that might have allowed statewide access to online casino games including blackjack, craps, and roulette in as little as three years.

DeSantis’ lead negotiator in the compact told lawmakers and reporters last week that the governor had been adamantly opposed to that possibility from the beginning. Yet, Sprowls said, the compact left open that option and he insisted it be removed.

The House and Senate are debating nine bills each to enact various elements of the 30-year Seminole Compact, which guarantees at least a $2.5 billion return to the state within five years. One key element would be introduction of sports betting and sports fantasy games via cellphones.

In DiCeglie’s committee, debate centered on the possibility that pari-mutuel facilities that offer card rooms could transfer their licenses elsewhere — Miami Beach’s Fountainbleau Hotel and the Trump National Doral Miami resort have been mentioned as possibilities.

The panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Michael Grieco, who represents Miami Beach and a portion of downtown Miami, where residents have firmly resisted any new gambling ventures, was among those voting no.

“My constituents are very sensitive to any language in any compact in any bill in any contract, any conversation, that could make it even 1 percent easier for any license to be expanded, moved from another location, so it’s already a nonstarter for me,” Grieco said.

Rep. Randy Fine, the Republican chairman of the full Select Committee on Gaming, sought to calm such fears. The compact does not expressly allow such moves, he said; it merely notes that the Seminole Tribe was dropping its objections to them.

John Sowinski, president of the anti-gambling group No Casinos, replied that it would be better not to open that door.

“There’s an army of lobbyists waiting next year, when there’s new people sitting in those seats in different committees, or two years from now or whatever, to say, ‘Hey, this language was put in here anticipating this day that we would be able to do this,” Sowinski said.

Another gambling option, fantasy sports, hit obstacles in the House, where the idea of 18-year-olds gambling on cellphones and electronic devices did not go over well.

As they stand at this point, the two main implementing bills would legalize various gambling games beyond their existing boundaries. Betting on live sporting events and on fantasy teams would be permitted statewide via cellphone and other electronic devices on the condition that servers processing the bets be physically located on land owned by the Seminole Tribe.

That “hub and spoke” device is designed to avoid violating constitutional Amendment 3, adopted by Florida voters in 2018, which outlaws expansion of casinos and gambling beyond tribal lands except by referenda. The hub would be the internet servers on Seminole property; the spokes would be devices across the state on which the bets are placed.

Debate and testimony Monday from lawmakers and witnesses, including lawyers representing the Seminole Tribe, made clear that the compact includes an escape hatch in case the statewide expansion of sports betting runs afoul of the state Constitution or federal gaming laws.

If that provision of the compact is tossed out, the tribe would retain exclusive rights to run sports betting on tribal land, and it would still pay a reduced share of its gambling revenue to the state under the remaining parts of the compact.

Sowinski, of No Casinos, objected even to that possibility, saying, “Let’s do what voters intended, and that’s close the door and hold the key, not open the door and say, ‘Hey, give it a try next session.”

Both chambers also moved toward creating a “gaming control commission” comprised of members appointed by the governor to enforce terms of the compact and to investigate gambling offenses.

The last compact, signed in 2010, was breached by the state, leading to a court case, a settlement, and ultimately, the tribe ceasing payments to the state. The lost revenue is estimated at $350 million.

This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix. For more stories from the Florida Phoenix, visit FloridaPhoenix.com.