A gambling deal that promises to bring at least $1 billion to the state over the next five years is on its way to Gov. Charlie Crist, who has promised to sign it into law.

The Florida House approved the measure (SB 622) by a 74-39 vote this afternoon.

It’s the third time Crist and the Seminole Tribe of Florida have signed off on a compact allowing the tribe to operate banked card games, including blackjack, and slot machines at its casinos.

The latest deal would allow the Seminoles to continue banked card games – blackjack, baccarat and chemin de fer – at five of their seven casinos. Cards would not be allowed at the Brighton and Big Cypress facilities.

The agreement could rake in an extra $435 million for this year’s budget and help lawmakers struggling to fill a $3.2 billion spending gap for the year that begins July 1.

In return, the tribe will pay $150 million a year to the state for two years and a minimum of $223 million for three years that.

The agreement with the tribe also lets them keep running Las Vegas-style slot machines at each of their facilities for the next 20 years.

Rep. Bill Galvano, the House’s chief gambling negotiator who helped craft the pact, said the bill won’t expand gambling in Florida because the tribe has already launched the games.

Proponents of the agreement say the deal with the Seminoles could transform Florida into the Las Vegas of the Southeast and pave the way for other, non-tribal gambling operations in the future.

But opponents of the measure argued that more gambling will bring a host of problems to the state.

“If you want gambling like that you should go to Las Vegas. And what happens in Las Vegas should stay in Las Vegas,” said Rep. Ronald “Doc” Renuart, R-Ponte Vedra Beach.
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The House Rules Committee gave Attorney General Bill McCollum’ “boost” this morning by allowing him to add individuals in the state’s lawsuit against President Barack Obama’s administration over federal health care reforms.

McCollum, a Republican who is running for governor, doesn’t necessarily need a new law to give him that power, Chairman Bill Galvano said, but would let the courts know that the state supports McCollum’s efforts.

“However, at best it can bolster it. At worst, it’s window dressing,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said.

More than a dozen Republican attorneys general in other states have joined McCollum’s lawsuit, which in Florida has fueled a partisan fight echoed in the committee this morning.

” I don’t think we should be in the business of passing laws that aren’t necessary,” argued Rep. Jim Waldman, a Coconut Creek Democrat who is a lawyer.

“The law that’s not necessary is the unconstitutional mandate requiring Floridians to buy health care coverage and if not fining them,” retorted House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach.

The bill passed along partisan lines, with Ron Saunders of Key West the only Democrat voting with Republicans. Democrats had stopped McCollum’s measure from being tacked onto a different bill last week but GOP House leaders revived the bill at McCollum’s request.

Deputy Attorney General Joe Jacquot said McCollum’s office does not believe they need the statutory authorization but that it would bolster the lawsuit’s standing in the courts. McCollum’s office is seeking a Senate vehicle for the proposal.

Flanked by key lawmakers, Gov. Charlie Crist and leaders of the Seminole Tribe of Florida announced they have reached a gambling deal that would reap the state up to $1 billion over the next five years.

It’s the second time Crist and the Seminoles closed a gambling compact but the difference today is that lawmakers – who twice rejected those plans – played a major role in the negotiations leading up to today’s announcement.

“This cleans up and resolves a controversy that has been festering for the last two decades,” the House’s chief gambling negotiator Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said.

The latest deal would allow the Seminoles to continue banked card games – blackjack, baccarat and chemin de fer – at five of their seven casinos. Cards would not be allowed at the Brighton and Big Cypress facilities.

If lawmakers must sign off on the compact, it could rake in an extra $435 million for this year’s budget and help lawmakers struggling to fill a $3.2 billion spending gap for the year that begins July 1.

In return, the tribe will pay $150 million a year to the state for two years and a minimum of $223 million for three years that.

The agreement with the tribe also lets them keep running Las Vegas-style slot machines at each of their facilities for the next 20 years.

But the deal on the cards expires after five years. Then, lawmakers would have to renew it for it to stay in effect.

House Rules Committee Chairman Bill Galvano dismissed a Tea Partier’s complaint against Democrat Ron Saunders on Wednesday.

James K. Barnes of Coral Springs alleged that Saunders, a veteran lawmaker from Key West, charged the state for travel money for trips to Tallahassee from his home in the Florida Keys while also filing for reimbursement for official and campaign work while in his Keys district.

Galvano ruled that the complaint had “numerous deficiencies” and found no evidence that Saunders broke a variety of House rules as Barnes alleged.

Saunders did not break House rules two years ago by soliciting campaign contributions during the legislative session, Galvano, R-Bradenton, decided. Saunders deposited several campaign checks on the first day of the 2008 session but that is permitted, Galvano wrote in a letter to Barnes.

Barnes also filed similar complaints with the state elections commission and ethics commission.

Although the Tea Partier filed the complaints against Saunders, Republicans have targeted Saunders, slated to become House Democratic Leader later this year, in his reelection bid in November.

The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct wrapped up its business this morning in the wake of former House Speaker Ray Sansom’s resignation last night.

Committee Chairman Bill Galvano:

“As a result of Speaker Sansom’s resignation as a member of the Florida House, further action by this committee is rendered moot. We’re without authority to fulfill the charge of this select committee,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said.

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.
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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.

State Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, sidestepped a U.S. Senate primary over the weekend but may be headed into a three-Democrat battle for the party’s attorney general nomination.

Gelber, state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, and former Democratic state Sen. Rod Smith of Alachua are all continuing to explore runs for the state’s top legal post in 2010. Incumbent AG Bill McCollum is running for governor.

The three potential Democratic candidates have talked extensively to each other over the last few weeks about avoiding a primary, but so far none has ruled out running.

“When we get into these primaries, it tends to become a circular firing squad,” Gelber said today.

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After considering making a political maneuver on the bills, Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the cigarette tax hike, 85-30, and the gambling bill, 82-35.

Democrats who opposed the cigarette tax bill were Leonard Bembry of Greenville, Debbie Boyd of Newberry, James Bush and Luis Garcia of Miami and Kevin Rader of Delray Beach. Republicans Brad Drake, Ed Homan, Paige Kreegel, Bryan Nelson and Baxter Troutman did not vote.

On the gambling bill, Democrats opposing the bill were Boyd, Bembry and Bush. Republicans Will Weatherford, Ed Homan and Doug Holder did not vote.

Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West, said he abandoned a strategy on the gambling bill out of respect for Rep. Bill Galvano.

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