Gov. Rick Scott‘s big — and rather sudden — push to bring (more) private-sector casinos to Florida has run into a road block. The governor’s Tea Party base, of all people, is throwing up opposition … and not for the reason you might think. Its objections stem not from religious conservatism but the fiscal variety, contending that Scott is shooting dice with the state’s budget.
Specifically, South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson (below) charges that Scott is a catspaw of Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson. (Well, that’s been pretty obvious.) More of a concern to him, however, is that legalization of full Vegas-style gambling would breach the state’s compact with the Seminole Tribe, resulting in an immediate cutoff of Seminole revenue-sharing arrangements with Florida. Wilkinson estimates the resultant shortfall at a minimum of $1.9 billion across a five-year period.
If he wanted, Wilkinson could raise a few other germane objections; for example, history has shown that critical mass works best for creating casino-destination markets (Las Vegas, Biloxi, Tunica, early Reno and Atlantic City), so why scatter the proposed five casinos into distant protectorates? Besides, only two Florida counties have even approved the halfway measure that is racinos. Who’s to say that, if the “exclusivity zones” go into law, there won’t be just one mega-casino, in Miami? (And no prizes for guessing who gets it.) It’s a very real possibility.
For that matter, even though the Seminole casinos have a perception issue as second- and third-rate facilities, how much of their $2 billion revenue base will defect to “Venetian Miami” or whatever? (Relatively little, I suspect.) This last is an important consideration when preparing to cast aside a guaranteed amount of Seminole moolah for the two birds in the bush that Adelson is promising.
It’s not just the Tea Party and the Seminoles who balk at the bill. The state’s racinos and parimutuels look upon it as their death knell. S&G sympathizes, as Isle of Capri Casinos and other pioneer operators in the state have had a rough early go of it. However, it looks as though — with a bit of legislative help — live racing in the Sunshine State is about to go the way of the dodo. In the case of greyhound racing, good riddance.
Way up north, in Minnesota, lawmakers are also weighing the risk vs. reward equation of breaching tribal gambling exclusivity. Unlike other states which have negotiated higher tribal tax rates, Minnesotans are pondering a limited amount of private-sector casino gambling. Of understandable concern to the tribes is, once you’ve made a couple of exceptions to their exclusivity, where does it end? And, if so, why keep sharing tribal dollars with Gov. Mark Dayton (D)?
On his northern front, Adelson got a good-news/bad-news bulletin about Genting’s schedule for opening Class II gaming at Resorts World New York (later debut but more machines overall). It remains to be seen how much the convenience factor which the Aqueduct racetrack site presents to the New York City market actually counts versus the superior array of games Adelson provides at his Pennsylvania casino.
I have been to many of the Indian and racinos in FL. In fact am going there tomorrow. The Ft. Lauderdale Hard Rock, and the casino a little further north, are both pleasant and not all that bad. However, the Indian casinos do not have the type of regulation that the racinos do. The Indian casinos can set the machines down to 75% (25% hold) max while the racinos can only hold 15% max hold, or 85% return. That is a huge difference, and is reflected in where you never win, and where you have a better chance. I have never won a dime in any of the Indian casinos, but have done OK at the racinos. Just knowing the rules kind of makes you want to stay away from the Indian casinos.
Dave, I hate to be picky. “the former Aqueduct track” In fact, the race track is still alive…but barely kicking!
In that case, I hope customers “vote with their feet” and take their business to Isle or whomever. At least one good thing that might come out of Adelson (or somebody else) operating in Florida is that it could force the Seminoles to loosen up those one-armed bandits — well-named, in this instance!
Guru, good catch. My goof has (hopefully) been rectified.
No biggie. There is plenty of precedent for screwing over Native Americans. Rick Scott has already thrown the entire public school system under the bus to give big business tax breaks, so why bother fretting about some pesky Natives with exclusive contracts. Ricky can simply ask Governor Snyder of Michigan how to craft legislation that voids all contracts. Unless of course we are talking about executive CEO contracts that call for multi-million dollar bonuses, those are unbreakable!