Legislature holds all cards

At the center of the legislative wrangling over a potential gambling bill in the session that just ended — no bill was ultimately approved — were what to do with eight counties whose voters had approved slot machines.

That question was also moving through the courts, though, and on Thursday the Florida Supreme Court said the decision to allow pari-mutuels to add the lucrative games rests with the Legislature, not voters.

The unanimous decision, siding with state regulators in a lawsuit filed by Gretna Racing, not only puts the kibosh on slots for the tiny Gadsden County horse track but also for pari-mutuels in seven other counties — Brevard, Duval, Hamilton, Lee, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Washington — where voters have approved slots in referendums.

“…There is no specific constitutional or statutory authority for Gadsden County to act on the subject of slot machine gaming,” Justice Charles Canady wrote in Thursday’s 16-page main opinion.

The ruling is based on a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2004 that authorized voters in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to allow slots.

Senate President Joe Negron, RStuart, issued a statement Thursday that said the Supreme Court “confirmed that the responsibility to determine the future of gaming in Florida lies with the elected members of the Legislature.”

“With current law upheld, the Legislature now has every opportunity to shape gaming policy for our state in a manner that respects both the authority of local referendums and the ongoing relationship with the Seminole Tribe, without the underlying concern that a court ruling could suddenly upend productive negotiations,” Negron said.

The Seminole Tribe and the state have been trying to hash out a deal, known as a “compact,” after a component of a 2010 agreement giving the Seminoles “exclusive” rights to operate banked card games, such as blackjack, expired in 2015.

After failing for years to get the Legislature to act, pari-mutuels in various parts of the state turned to county referendums to push the slots forward. But Thursday’s unanimous ruling made it clear that counties and pari-mutuel lobbyists will have to go back to the Legislature for a possible expansion of slots.

The Supreme Court decision takes pressure off lawmakers, especially House members loath to expand gambling by allowing slots in the referendum counties, to craft a deal that would expand slots. It also eliminates the possibility of a special session on the topic.