There’s about a month left before a piece of the state’s gaming agreement with the Seminole Indian tribe expires. But the tribe has said it has no plans to close its tables.
The piece of the gaming agreement that’s set to expire at the end of the month is a provision that gives the Seminole tribe exclusive rights to offer bank card games. Those are games played against the house, such as blackjack. The exclusive part of the agreement is important. Laura Anstead the state’s senior attorney for gaming issues, gave lawmakers a lesson on the compact before the start of the regular legislative session. She says she likes to think of it as zone defense.
“The state must provide zone defense for both slots and Black Jack outside of Miami-Dade and Broward County, meaning that the tribe is the only person who can offer slots and blackjack outside of Miami-Dade and Broward County. The other zone is inside Miami-Dade and Broward County and the exclusivity there is more limited,” Anstead says.
Talks over a new blackjack agreement between the tribe and state appear stalled, and if the compact isn’t extended, the rules give the tribe until the end of October to wind its black jack gaming down. But in a letter the tribe recently sent to the governor, officials said they have no plans to drape their tables. That’s because of another rule in the compact. It lets the tribe offer any game legally operated by any other entity in the state.
In its, the tribe claims other facilities are offering blackjack games, particularly electronic blackjack games. And tribe members say if that’s the case, they have the right to keep their tables open. They’ve asked the state to meet to resolve the issue, and a spokesman for the tribe isn’t ruling out the possibility of a larger court battle. But Marc Dunbar, a partner at the law firm of Jones Walker in Tallahassee, says the outcome of a case like that would be a coin toss.
“No court has ever answered the basic question, if you legalize something in electronic format does that legalize a sovereign tribe to do it a real format and that’s basically the nature of the case," Dunbar says.
Dunbar suspects the two will try to work out an agreement without a lawsuit. He represents a pari-mutuel in Gretna that wants to operate slot machines. The Seminole tribe wants to join in that case. It’s working to block the slot machines, because the tribe says that would violate the compact. Dunbar says the current squabble between the tribe and the state has little to do with Gretna, but he is watching what happens carefully.
Dunbar expects gaming to come up in legislative committee discussions starting in September or even a special session at the end of October. In Florida, the governor is responsible for negotiations with the tribe. He’s appointed a group of lawmakers to lead talks with the Seminoles. But any agreements must get ratified by the legislature.
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