Who broke the compact between the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe? That question is at the nub of a bench trial over the Seminoles’ disputed blackjack games. A win 
for Gov. Rick Scott (R) could be Pyrrhic, costing the state untold millions of dollars that the Seminoles are setting aside on the presumption that the games are ruled valid and the tribe’s revenue-sharing arrangement with the state is upheld. Hard Rock International Chairman James Allen testified that Scott played dirty, permitting electronic blackjack at parimutuels, violating the spirit of the previous compact. “Just because blackjack is played on a computer doesn’t make it OK,” argued tribal attorney Barry Richard, making the case that the Seminoles had paid dearly ($1.7 billion dearly) for exclusive rights to blackjack and the state had gone back on its word.
What’s more, the 2010 compact in question allowed the Seminoles to keep blackjack if their exclusivity was breached. (Oops.) While admitting that parimutuels “push the limit of state law,” Florida attorney J. Carter Anderson tried to split the difference, saying that blackjack played on a slot machine isn’t really blackjack. Colleague Leigh-Anne Moe piled on, making the point that the Seminoles were never promised exclusivity for slots. Implication: If blackjack-like video games aren’t blackjack, the Seminoles are SOL. Moe added that, since the 2010 compact had expired, the tribe should have voluntarily removed its ’21’ tables. She scored points of Allen by getting to admit that the Seminoles had been a little bit naughty in 2007 by offering blackjack while then-Gov. Charlie Crist‘s original compact (eventually overthrown) was being litigated. The trial is expected to conclude today.
* Kahnawake Gaming Commission, a small Canadian tribal outfit with enormous online presence, will no longer accept wagers from U.S. punters. That’s the unilateral edict which sprang from the discovery, a year ago, that one Kahnawake site was taking bets from New Jersey gamblers. (The New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which said it was pleased to have the tribe’s assistance, found the untoward wagering, in another validation of its e-security measures.) Grand Chief Joe Norton says Kahnawake-sanctioned sites found to be taking Yankee money will get yanked. Norton’s long game is to give the tribe perceived legitimacy in the U.S., recognition that could eventually translate into trans-border gaming compacts such as the one that exists between Delaware and Nevada. He also hopes that this will open the door for Native American tribes to offer Internet gambling. “This understanding with the state of New Jersey that we’ve reached creates and sets the building blocks to be able to go to the different states where there is Native American gaming taking place and build that up,” Norton told the Financial Post.
* Jeff Gural and Paul Fireman may have temporarily abandoned their pursuit of casinos in northern New Jersey but opponents of ballot measure that would revoke Atlantic City‘s exclusivity aren’t taking ballot-box victory as a sure thing. Anti-expansion PAC Trenton’s Bad Bet (in part a creature of Resorts World New York) is attacking with with a quartet of new, anti-expansion ads focusing on the state government’s perceived inability to spend wisely. The ads come at a time when poll numbers for Gural and Fireman continue to worsen. According to a Stockton University survey, only 27% of voters support expansion — and 63% are opposed even in northern New Jersey, which was supposed to benefit from the initiative. Gural, who promises to be back in two years, is a smart guy. But what to make of Reebok mogul Fireman, who predicted Jersey City would eclipse Macao? It continually bemuses us that men like that got so rich. Stick to running shoes, Paul.
* Bad debt is proving to be the undoing of casino VIP rooms in Macao. “Consequently, and because of the lengthening and difficulty of collecting markers receivable, the company will not be actively extending credit to its clients during this period and therefore it expects business volume to be minimal,” said Iao Kun Group Holdings, which is retrenching to a single VIP room, at City of Dreams. Iao Kun has shuttered a VIP room at Sands Cotai Central and was kicked out of two Galaxy Entertainment properties. Iao Kun said it would refocus “on the collection of its outstanding markers receivable and expects to continue those efforts in the near term,” words that always make us think “Triads.”
