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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Bowing to pressure from federal officials, Sen. Jeff Atwater said today he’d like a December special session to address rail issues.

Gov. Charlie Crist said this afternoon that he would welcome the reconsideration of a controversial commuter rail project that lawmakers failed to pass in the spring and another stab at a gambling compact with the Seminoles.

“That’s a great idea,” Crist said.

Senate President Jeff Atwater, meeting with leaders from Congress and the White House today over Medicaid and rail transit issues said he wants a December special session to show the federal government that Florida needs $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail.

“The President would like to give the Federal government an answer by the end of the year, December being the earliest we could feasibly have a special session. He plans to talk with the Speaker, Governor and Senate members in coming days,” Atwater’s spokeswoman Jaryn Emhof said in an e-mail.

Here’s our front-page story this morning on some of the issues facing high-speed rail in Florida.

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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.

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.

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 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.

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Asked today about a bill that would allow “Class II” gaming across Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist claimed he was “not much of a gambler” and didn’t know what Class II meant. Click the photo to watch the video.

In November Crist cut a deal with the Seminole Tribe to give them, among other things, the exclusive right to upgrade from Class II bingo-type machines to Class III Las Vegas-style slots.
In return, the state gets a share of the profit unless gambling is expanded elsewhere. The bill Crist was asked about would expand Class II gambling elsewhere.

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Roulette and blackjack are fine for Florida if the state can reap some of the benefits, Gov. Charlie Crist said Thursday.

Crist spoke about negotiations with the Florida Seminole Indians that his predecessor Jeb Bush stalled for years.

Because voters approved Las Vegas-style slot machines in Broward County pari-mutuels, tribal leaders believe they are entitled to the same or even more types of gambling.

If the state fails to seal a deal with the Seminoles, millions of dollars in revenues from their expanded gambling venture could be lost, which Crist said could be used to avoid raising taxes.

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