Gaming compact: Lawmakers brace for high-stakes session with $2.5 billion on the line

Some 70 state lawmakers, reporters and other interested parties were schooled this week on “a spiderweb” of gambling laws in Florida, ahead of a special session of the Florida Legislature that aims to legalize sports betting for the first time.

That’s in spite of a 2018 constitutional amendment banning casinos and casino-type gaming except as approved by voters statewide.

At the heart of the matter is a proposed 30-year compact between the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe worth a minimum of $2.5 billion to the state over the next five years.

If ratified by the Legislature next week, that new compact and its giant payout would replace a 2010 agreement worth absolutely nothing to the state since April 2019. During former Gov. Rick Scott’s administration, the state breached the terms of the 2010 compact, which had granted the Seminole Tribe exclusive rights to certain kinds of gambling games. The dispute went to court, a settlement was reached, but then it was not enforced by the state, so the tribe ultimately stopped paying the state a share of its gaming revenue, according to lawyers and legislative analysts who briefed lawmakers and news media this week.

Read more: https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2021/05/13/gaming-compact-lawmakers-brace-for-high-stakes-session-with-2-5-billion-on-the-line/