House offer moves state closer to wider gambling
TALLAHASSEE — After years of stalemate, House and Senate leaders appear to be closing in on a deal to revamp Florida’s gambling industry and strike an agreement with the Seminole Tribe in what could be a considerable expansion of gambling throughout the state.
The House made what Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, the Senate’s chief negotiator on gambling issues, called a “substantial offer” Wednesday morning. The proposal moved toward the Senate’s pari-mutuel industry-friendly plan, as the May 5 end of the legislative session nears.
“We know that time is running out, so we wanted to make a serious and substantial offer to the Senate,” Gal- vano’s House counterpart, Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, said.
Until this week, the House had favored a status-quo a pp r o a c h t h a t i n c l u d e d few if any changes viewed favorably by the pari-mutuel industry
But the new proposal by the House included numerous concessions for the Seminole Tribe and pari-mutuel operators, including allowing the Seminoles to add craps and roulette at seven tribal casinos.
“It may look like little steps because we’re so far apart to begin with. ... But we feel like this puts us in a position where we could come towards the Senate position on a lot of things and retain the House position on a lot of things,” said Diaz, R-Miami.
The House also backed down from its opposition to a process known as “decoupling,” which would allow greyhound tracks and most horse tracks to do away with racing altogether while keeping more lucrative activities, such as slots and card rooms.
Unlike the Senate’s plan, the House proposal would require count y voters to approve decoupling, something Galvano said he would consider.
The House also signed off on a new facility with slots and a card room in MiamiDade County; the Senate had wanted a total of two new gambling facilities in Bro- ward and/or Miami-Dade counties. Under the House offer, the facility would have to be at least five miles away from an existing pari-mutuel facility and would have to purchase at least one active pari-mutuel permit and give it back to the state.
And the House agreed to reduce the current 35 p e rc e n t t a x r a t e o n s l o t machines at “racinos” in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, but only if the facilities reduce the maximum number of machines. Under current law, the racinos are allowed to have up to 2,000 slot machines per facility, but Diaz said none of the operators has more than 1,400.
The tax rate would drop to 25 percent for facilities that agree to a cap of 1,500 machines, and 30 percent f o r a maxi mum o f 1 ,75 0 machines.
The House offer appears very similar to a deal, known as a compact, struck by Gov. Rick Scott and the Seminoles late in 2015. The Legislature never approved the compact, so it never went into effect.
But the 2015 compact provided the baseline for House and Senate gambling plans again this year. Both chambers are asking the Seminoles to guarantee $3 billion in payments to the state over seven years, in exchange for craps and roulette, something the tribe had agreed to in the ill-fated deal.
The issue of slots in Palm Beach Count y and seven other counties — Brevard, Duval, Gadsden, Hamilton, Lee, St. Lucie and Washington — remains a major sticking point between the House and Senate.