The Florida House is expected to vote on a gambling bill today after its sponsor, Rep. Mike La Rosa, answered on Tuesday questions on what the legislative piece proposes.
The House vote is coming after the Senate passed its own gambling bill last week. Unlike the Senate proposal, which allows for massive expansion of the state gambling industry, Florida’s lower house is resolute in keeping the current gambling status quo and preventing the addition of more gaming options beyond the ones already provided to local patrons.
Rep. La Rosa told House lawmakers that his legislation is building “a firewall” that will close all the loopholes that could be exploited for any form of gambling expansion.
For instance, the House bill bans gambling facilities around Florida from adding slot machines. The ban encompasses even counties that had already approved the addition of gaming devices.
What is more, if the legislative piece is signed into law in its current form, it will allow the Seminole Tribe to keep its exclusivity over blackjack and will reaffirm the tribe’s compact with Florida from 2010. However, the Seminoles will have to pay $3 billion to the state for a seven-year period in exchange for the right to keep their status as Florida’s sole blackjack operator.
If the House approves Rep. La Rosa’s bill, the state Legislature will be faced with two conflicting bills and lawmakers that may not be ready to compromise heavily. And heavy compromise will indeed be needed here as the two legislative pieces call for two exactly opposite approaches to gambling.
The Senate-sponsored bill, approved last week, proposes the addition of more slot machines, more table games at the Seminole Tribe’s casinos in South Florida, and allows state pari-mutuels to operate card games that mimic action at actual blackjack tables.
On top of that, the Seminoles are set to contest both legislative proposals as ones that require them to pay too much for too little in exchange. Here it is important to note that although the Senate bill will make it possible for the tribe to add roulette and craps to its existing offering, it will deprive it of its blackjack exclusivity. Under the piece sponsored by the state’s higher house, too, Seminole casinos will have to pay $3 billion in exchange for what they are offered.
Tribal officials have argued that both bills will probably not make it through the US Department of the Interior because of the increased payments to Florida. On the other hand, House Representatives argued during their Tuesday meeting that the bill could have treated pari-mutuels more fairly. They pointed out that under the legislative piece, the Seminole Tribe would pay what equals to 13% in tax revenue, compared to a 35% tax pari-mutuels in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties are annually contributing to Florida coffers.
If the House passes its bill, it is then set to begin immediate negotiations with the Senate over the future of the state’s gambling industry.
