House Speaker Larry Cretul asked federal officials to intervene in gambling talks between Florida and the Seminoles, saying negotiations “are at an impasse.”

Cretul wrote a letter today to National Indian Gaming Commission Chairman George Skibine, who met with the speaker and the House’s chief gambling negotiator Bill Galvano yesterday, asking the feds to fine the Indians or shut them down.

Crist this week said he wanted lawmakers to address the gambling compact in a special session in December.

Cretul’s letter indicates that’s not going to happen.

The Florida Supreme Court last year tossed an agreement signed by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminoles and lawmakers this year failed to pass a revised version of the pact.

Under Crist’s latest plan, the Seminoles would have paid $150 million a year to the state for education in exchange for Las Vegas-style slot machines and blackjack and other card games at its Hollywood and Tampa casinos as well as its Brighton and Big Cypress locales in Broward County.

The Seminoles have continued to run the games even without an agreement with the state, irking GOP House leaders and Attorney General Bill McCollum, who accuse the tribe of breaking the law.
(more…)

Atwater: no quick vote on compact

Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, sent Crist a list of questions about the compact - the second deal Crist inked with the tribe - today seeking “clarification.”

Atwater gave Crist until Oct. 9 to respond.

In an interview, Atwater also said he’d like the final compact to include provisions allowing the Palm Beach Kennel Club and other parimutuels around the state to add video slot machines or otherwise expand gambling if voters give the OK in local referenda. Such a measure was approved by legislators in the spring, but was not part of the recent compact Crist agreed to with the Seminoles.

Crist: wants early-October vote

No dice on that, either, Atwater said in a memo sent to the Senate and the media.

“As you all are aware, this issue involves a series of complex conversations with a variety of interests and impacts throughout our State. There are policy decisions to be considered that are not well served by undue haste. If, or when, the Senate takes up this issue it will be in a manner that allows for sufficient time to debate the facts and the merits of such policy,” Atwater wrote.

Shutting down the possibility of any kind of slot machine gambling at the state’s pari-mutuels and giving the Seminoles the right to offer blackjack at any of their casinos could jeopardize Crist and the tribe’s agreement, said state Rep. Bill Galvano, the House’s chief negotiator on the proposed compact.

“Those are red flags,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said. “We’ll review from here and see where we go.”

Lawmakers laid out a gambling deal for Crist and the Seminoles in a bill the governor signed into law earlier this year.

That proposal allowed the Seminoles to keep blackjack at its Hollywood and Tampa Hard Rock resorts and to offer it at its Brighton and Big Cypress locales in Broward County.

The bill also didn’t mention “Class II” slot machines that look and play like Las Vegas-style slots but are less lucrative for operators.

The compact signed by Crist and the tribe today gives the Seminoles the exclusive rights to operate slots of any kind - including Class II video lottery terminals - anywhere outside of Broward and Miami-Dade counties where Las Vegas-style slots are already allowed.

That could have a devastating impact on the state’s dog and horse tracks, pari-mutuel operators object.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe of Florida agreed to a gambling deal today, the deadline lawmakers gave to Crist to reach an agreement with the tribe.

The deal won’t be final, however, until the legislature approves the contract, probably during a special session in October.

The $6.8 billion, 20-year deal allows the Seminoles to offer blackjack at each of their seven facilities.

But that’s not what lawmakers ordered Crist to do.

They told him they would only agree to let the Seminoles have blackjack at their three Broward County facilities and another near Tampa.

Lawmakers must sign on off the deal before it can go into effect.

“Over the last two months, my administration has in good faith negotiated with the Seminole Tribe of Florida a compact that will reap financial benefit to the people of Florida,” Crist said in a statement urging lawmakers to approve the compact.

PATRICK FARRELL/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Aida Perez of Summerville, S.C., plays the slot machines at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Gov. Charlie Crist have until today to agree on a gambling compact that would allow slot machines, blackjack and other banked card games at the tribal casinos.

The Seminoles voted to approve a compact at a behind-closed-doors meeting Friday, but sources say the council refused to accept some provisions sought by the Legislature.

If Crist signs the agreement, he is expected to call a special session in October to have lawmakers sign off on the deal, as required by law. (more…)

Gov. Charlie Crist weighed in on a variety of topics this morning after signing several law enforcement-related bills at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles this morning.

Sheltered from the blazing heat by tents, slews of department employees dressed in bright red shirts turned out to hear Crist speak and pose for pictures with the governor, who is also running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.

Among the bills Crist signed today was one that will expand the state’s DNA database. Law enforcement officials, now limited to taking DNA samples from those convicted of crimes, will now be able to take DNA from anyone who is arrested.

But Crist defended the bill (SB 2276) which civil liberties advocates argue is too far-reaching and have threatened to challenge in court.

“I think it’ll be alright or I wouldn’t have signed the bill. I think that we need to protect first and make sure that our people are safe. I think that this legislation will help us to do that even better,” he said.

Read what else Crist told reporters at a gaggle after the bill-signing after the jump. (more…)

Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday signed legislation setting the outlines for a proposed gambling deal with the Seminoles that could reap the state billions of dollars for education.

Lawmakers gave Crist until Aug. 31 to finish negotiations and sign a pact with the tribe — a step that still remains to be completed. The legislature must approve the contract once one is inked.

Under the 15-year agreement that lawmakers have outlined, the Seminoles could continue to have Las Vegas-style slot machines and blackjack, chemin de fer and baccarat at their two Broward County casinos and one in Hillsborough County.

The tribe would be limited to slots only at its remaining Florida locales, including Immokalee, which it had planned on expanding.

(more…)

The Senate approved a gambling bill giving the Seminoles the ability to continue to hold blackjack and other banked card games at their Broward and Hillsborough county facilities in exchange for a guaranteed $150 million a year for education.

The bill (SB 788) also opens the door for more slot machines at parimutuels outside of Broward and Miami-Dade counties where they are already allowed. Voters would have to sign off before that could happen.

The Palm Beach Kennel Club could also use its jai alai permit to open a card room or another dog track under the legislation, which the House is expected to pass and Gov. Charlie Crist has said he will sign into law.

Why the special treatment for the Kennel Club, bill sponsor Sen. Dennis Jones was asked.

The Rooney clan who own the club wants to open another facility north of the West Palm Beach locale. But it’s also for the dogs, Jones said.

“The feeling is that the owners would basically like to convert that…and have a facility in the north county and the south county,” Jones, R-Seminole, said.
“It’s to basically utilize the dogs more so the breeders have more activities…and at the same time a biz decision for the owners of those two permits.”

The Senate approved the measure by a 31-9 vote.

Sen. Jim King had barely caught his breath after lambasting Democrats for threatening to vote against the budget before he launched into a diatribe about Hialeah Race Park getting special treatment in the gambling bill.

The bill, approved by the Senate by a 31-9 vote, will allow the quarter horse track, built in 1925 and a historical landmark, to reopen and eventually have thoroughbred racing and slot machines.

“Here you have an entity that was all but gone, dead and buried, just basically a permit,” complained King, R-Jacksonville. “Not only are they in the mix they are also in the opportunity to run races.”

King took a swipe at Miami-Dade County lawmakers who lobbied diligently to get the special provision for Hialeah.

“I’ve never seen some of them work so hard…but that doesn’t make it right for those of us who’ve been here and who have seen what have happened,” King said. He voted for the bill (SB 788).

Seminoles could have blackjack and other banked card games in Broward and Hillsborough counties but only slot machines at their remaining three facilities and leaves the door open for full-fledged slots in Palm Beach County.

House and Senate gambling negotiators struck a deal late this evening as Gov. Charlie Crist and some tribal members looked on, finishing in time for lawmakers to take a full vote on the gambling package before the Senate is scheduled to end on Friday.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Crist said. “This is a victory for the children of Florida and for education.”

Under the final deal, lawmakers could give permission to voters in any county to approve full-fledged slot machines at pari-mutuels that have held live racing for at least two years, like the Palm Beach Kennel Club. But that would require legislation authorizing the referendum.

In exchange for blackjack at four of their seven casinos, the Seminoles would pay at least $150 million per year plus 12 percent of their earnings up to $2.5 billion. The state share could be as high as 25 percent of the tribe’s net win over $4.5 billion.

“We think it’s important to have these resources to help us get through the next year and couple years,” said Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, who also led the gambling talks.

House chief negotiator Bill Galvano had said earlier that allowing blackjack in Broward alone would “push the House to the brink” and conceded that the final deal allowing blackjack there and in Tampa Bay “was still a heavy lift.”

Lawmakers will revisit the types of gambling allowed in the state in five years.

Earlier in the day, an agreement seemed unlikely when Galvano accused the Senate of moving backwards with a bid this morning that included a broader proposal for Indian card games than previously proposed.

“Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your offer but I will say that it appears the Senate, with all due respect and notwithstanding your brief explanation, is moving backwards. Backwards from where we want to go in an expansion standpoint. Backwards from where the House is heading. And I’ll look at your offer and we will let you know if it’s necessary to meet further,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said.

Max Osceola is biding his time down the street from the Capitol after gambling negotiations between the House and Senate blew up earlier this morning.

The Seminole Tribal Councilman is in the same limbo as a crush of lobbyists on the other side of a gambling stalemate.

Osceola sat beside Gov. Charlie Crist this morning as talks took a nosedive after the Senate offer broadened gambling opportunities for the Indians. House gambling negotiator Bill Galvano shut down the talks and now it remains up in the air when he and Senate counterpart J.D. Alexander will meet again, if at all.
(more…)

A few hours after the House’s chief negotiator accused the Senate of “moving backwards” on a gambling deal and threatened to call off talks, Senate President Jeff Atwater said he thinks the two chambers are “close” to reaching an agreement before the session ends on Friday.

“I’m frankly just so impressed that we’re down to just a couple of items left that I think if I were looking at odds at the moment my odds would be, now that we’re this close, I think we can come up with something that can work,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said this afternoon.

Rep. Bill Galvano abruptly walked out this morning after Sen. J.D. Alexander presented his latest offer on a compact with the Seminoles that would allow them to hold blackjack, baccarat and chemin de fer at all of their seven casinos. The Senate’s previous offer had limited all of the card games and only permitted blackjack at all of the casinos.

Atwater, accompanied by Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander who is also handling the gambling deal, said he wasn’t surprised by Rep. Bill Galvano’s reaction, saying that it was the “first pushback” after two days of negotiations.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise that in something this significant that we hit a bump. But hopefully they’ll call us shortly and be ready to sit back down soon,” Atwater said.

Atwater met with the Seminoles early this morning and said he believes the two chambers are “finding some common ground” on their disparate plans. The House wants to limit blackjack to the tribe’s three Broward County resorts, which the Seminoles have rejected.

When asked if it was time for Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul to take over gambling talks, Atwater said “I don’t think so” before Alexander interrupted.

“Please. Please. Please. Fire me,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales, pleaded in jest.

Gambling negotiations broke down this morning after the Senate reversed an earlier offer to the House limiting an expansion of gaming for the Seminoles and instead allowing them to have blackjack and all banked card games at each of their seven facilities.

And the latest Senate plan would also allow Palm Beach Kennel Club to have electronic slot machines if voters approve, something they had taken off the table.

“Mr. Chairman I appreciate your offer but I will say that it appears the Senate, with all due respect and notwithstanding your brief explanation, is moving backwards. Backwards from where we want to go in an expansion standpoint. Backwards from where the House is heading. And I’ll look at your offer and we will let you know if it’s necessary to meet further,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said after his Senate counterpart J.D. Alexander quickly read through “Senate Offer #4.”

“Thank you very much,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said.
(more…)

After three meetings today, House and Senate leaders remain sharply divided over a gambling proposal.

Appearances by Gov. Charlie Crist and Lt. Gov Jeff Kottkamp, who showed up twice, did little or nothing to bring the two sides closer together on whether the Seminoles should be allowed to offer blackjack and slots at their Hard Rock resorts.

The House made few concessions in their third offer at the day’s final meeting, signing off on minor issues but refusing to grant the Seminoles the right to hold tabled card games.

Lawmakers are trying to come up with a replacement compact after the Florida Supreme Court tossed out an agreement between the tribe and Crist allowing blackjack, baccarat and chemin de fer at its casinos.

After the ruling, the tribe continued to operate the games at the Hard Rock near Hollywood and started running them in their Tampa facility.

Rep. Bill Galvano, the House’s chief gambling negotiator, said that granting the tribe permission to have the games was tantamount to “rewarding bad behavior.”

Crist said the House should approve the compact “cuz the kids need the money” for education but bristled when asked about Galvano’s remarks.

“That’s up to them to decide. It’s in their hands,” he said.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, who had been negotiating throughout the day on gambling, tobacco taxes and the budget, left hurriedly after the meeting looking displeased with “House Offer #3.”

Alexander, R-Lake Wales, had counted on up to $500 million from the Seminoles for education spending. Lawmakers may need to return to Tallahassee for a special session on gambling if they do not reach consensus before Friday, the last day of the extended session.

House and Senate leaders opened negotiations on gambling doing little to resolve their differences but meeting at last.

Gambling talks between the chambers have been on hold since Friday. Their task: craft a plan that addresses games at the Seminole casino resorts and the state’s dog and horse tracks and reaps the biggest rewards for the state.

Still up in the air: which games the Seminoles will be allowed to operate at their casino resorts, a possible expansion of blackjack for dog and horse tracks in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and how much revenue to demand from the tribe.

“There’s a lot of meat left on the bone,” the House’s chief gambling negotiator Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said after the meeting.

Galvano and his Senate counterpart J.D. Alexander did agree to limit a compact with the Seminoles to 15 years instead of the 25 years the tribe had sought and which was included in the original deal signed by Gov. Charlie Crist. The Florida Supreme Court tossed that.
(more…)

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander and House gambling negotiator Bill Galvano won’t meet tonight.

Instead, Alexander is expected to respond to the House’s counter-offer tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.

No details yet on what the more gaming-tolerant Senate will have in its plan, but it’s likely to reject the House’s opening bid of blackjack only in Broward, for both the Seminoles and the pari-mutuels. The tribe isn’t likely to sign off on that, either.

Galvano said he has until noon to make headway with Alexander before House Speaker Larry Cretul takes over to negotiate with Senate President Jeff Atwater.

Alexander has been at the Capitol nearly 18 hours a day for weeks crafting the budget and worked throughout the weekend, finally closing out most of it at 6 p.m. this evening.

Galvano caught himself when explaining why he wanted the Senate’s offer tonight: so he can reject it.

“While they’re working on bills in the morning, we can regroup on the House side and maybe make a counter. I guess that’s a bit pessimistic to say make a counter, right?” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said.

The man with the red pen delivered a subtle yet unquestionable threat to lawmakers over a dangling deal with the Seminoles.

House and Senate leaders have yet to start meeting to work out their differences on a gambling proposal encompassing a deal with the tribe and the state’s horse and dog tracks and jai-alai frontons.

A deal with the Seminoles could reap up to $500 million a year for the state depending on what lawmakers settle on, if anything. They have until Friday to pass a compact that Gov. Charlie Crist and the tribe must then agree to.

Crist, whose compact with the tribe was thrown out by the Florida Supreme Court, suggested that lawmakers finish up the deal…or else.

“If it doesn’t happen, I may have to cut things out of this budget that are put in there. The members are acutely cognizant of that. There are important things that they want to do around the state and that I want them to do,” Crist said this morning as he dropped in on a budget conference meeting. “In some ways the Seminole compact money gives us the opportunity to do some of that.”

Crist said it wasn’t a threat.

“No, no. That’s not what I meant. But it’s just reality,” he insisted.

Blackjack and slots are off the table for Palm Beach County but a second dog track is now in the cards.

The PBC provisions are included in a House counteroffer on gambling offered this afternoon that would also allow Broward’s dog track and two horse tracks to offer blackjack. The proposal would limit blackjack at the Seminole Tribe’s casinos to the Hollywood Hard Rock.

But the tribe could not run the card game anywhere else and the state’s other pari-mutuels wouldn’t be able to offer it either under the House’s counteroffer on gambling.

Allowing blackjack anywhere was a big move for the House, the chamber’s chief gambling negotiator said.

“This is not the time in the game to just be taking nibbles so we made a decision to make a move pretty much to the brink of where we can,” said Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton. “But if we are to get some resolution that that provision would have to come into play.”

The House rejected the Senate’s opening bid that would allow the Palm Beach Kennel Club to have slot machines if voters approved it.
(more…)

House and Senate negotiators are getting nowhere settling a gambling deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and making changes for dog and horse tracks.

They met only once since given the task Wednesday of bringing the chambers closer together on schismatic proposals that on the Senate side opened gambling wide open and on the House side clamped down.

The House never responded to the Senate’s opening bid Wednesday night and it appears doubtful the committee will get much further, if at all, today.

They’ll bump the issue to Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander and one of the House chiefs, Alexander said.

Alexander said he’s one of the “few folks that’s not beholden to any of the interests” angling for help on gambling. Some Miami-Dade County lawmakers are looking for a way to reopen Hialeah Race Park. They and some Broward County lawmakers want something to help their pari-mutuels compete with the Seminoles, as do some Tampa Bay officials. The Palm Beach Kennel Club hopes to add something to its gambling arsenal. Central Florida pols want to keep the state’s multi-billion thoroughbred industry alive.

On top of that, lawmakers are trying to come up with something the Seminoles will agree to that will also be lucrative for the state. The Senate is counting on using money from a gambling deal with the tribe to put into savings.

Earlier in the week, Senate President Jeff Atwater said the task would be a “very, very heavy lift.”

It doesn’t appear lighter thus far.

“Hope springs eternal but all I can do is my best,” said Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

The Senate approved its version of a trying to help horse and dog tracks but the fight over gambling is far from over.

In fact, it’s just beginning.

The Senate stripped the House’s bill and replaced it with its own language that would give horse and dog tracks throughout the state the ability to operate slots-like machines.

The House version does not include that provision but raises the stakes in card games like Texas Hold ‘Em.

But the bill’s passage means next to nothing.

A bicameral committee charged with ironing out differences between the two chambers regarding pari-mutuel gaming and a deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida held its first - and brief - meeting this morning.

They opened the ante at square one. The House wants no card games for the Seminoles but limit them to Las Vegas-style slot machines. The Senate offered to let them keep the blackjack and other card games they now have plus give them roulette and craps.

The House is likely to say no dice to the roulette and craps but may cave on blackjack.