Writer: Caty Hirst
2 min read January 2022— The fight over the future of gambling in Florida is heating up — as the Seminole Tribe of Florida squares off against the Las Vegas Sands Corp in a legal battle over expanding gambling rights to pari-mutuel operators in North Florida.
Currently, the Seminole Tribe runs the only Las Vegas-style gambling operations in the state of Florida but the ballot potentially headed to voters in Nov. 2022 would change that. Florida Voters in Charge, a political action committee financed primarily by the Las Vegas Sands Corp., launched an effort to get enough signatures to push the issue of gambling rights to the Florida voters on a statewide ballot measure in November 2022. In a lawsuit against political action committee Standing up for Florida, financed primarily by the Seminole Tribe, Florida Voters in Charge have accused the tribe of illegally harassing signature gatherers and interfering with the signature-gathering process. In response, Standing up for Florida — represented by West Palm Beach attorney William Shepherd — has accused the Florida Voters in Charge PAC of illegally gathering signatures, forging signatures and withholding pay from signature gatherers when they failed to meet quotas, according to local news networks and court filings. The filings, with the Leon County circuit judge, have not been ruled on yet.
Florida Voters in Charge did receive and submit enough signatures by the December deadline, according to state records, but state election officials have until Feb. 1 to certify the signatures meet all the legal requirements.
Pari-mutuel betting is a system in which all bets, for example bets on horse racing, are pooled together and the “house” or gambling operator removes taxes on gambling and the house-take from the pool before payoffs are distributed to the winning bets. The system ensures the gambling operator always makes a cut. The ballot initiative pushed by Florida Voters in Charge would allow these operators in North Florida to add casino games to their operations. Additionally, it would enable the creation of a Las Vegas-style casino in North Florida. Las Vegas Sands has contributed nearly $50 million to the battle, which centers on a facility in Jacksonville, according to local news reports.
The controversy over the opening of additional gambling facilities comes at the same time as a controversial state-brokered deal with the Seminole Tribe on sports betting grinds to a halt. In May 2021, Florida lawmakers agreed in a special session to expand the state’s gaming compact with the Tribe, giving the Seminole Tribe nearly complete control of online sports betting in the state of Florida. The deal would have allowed online sports betting to take place through the Tribe’s Hard Rock Sportsbook app, which they launched in early November 2021. Gamblers would not have been required to physically be on Seminole land to gamble through the application — a loophole that has, for now, seen the law shuttered.
Despite Gov. DeSantis signing the law into effect on May 25, 2021, several lawsuits were filed arguing that the deal violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. In December 2021, the Seminole Tribe pulled the Hard Rock Sportsbook app when a federal court ruled against the deal. The Seminole Tribe is appealing the law, according to Legal Sports Report.
In response to the sports gaming issue, the political action group (PAC) Florida Education Champions has been canvassing for signatures to have a separate sports betting initiative placed on a statewide ballot in November 2022. According to Ballotpedia, the campaign submitted enough signatures but Florida elections officials have until Feb. 1 to verify the signatures.
At stake is millions in gambling revenue — the online gambling industry alone is projected to reach $565 billion in value in 2022, according to Financial News Media. The efforts to expand gambling in Florida mirror similar trends across the nation, with Arizona approving online sports betting in April 2021, for example. A study conducted by the Florida Education Champions — part of the effort to get the sports betting ballot to voters in November — showed that online sports betting would create 20,000 direct jobs and bring in $1.1 billion in direct added domestic product, as well as $264 million in tax revenue.
Currently, there are 15 casinos operating in Florida, with an economic impact of $7.55 billion and creating 54,142 jobs. The gross gaming revenue is $3.14 billion and the tax impact and tribal revenue share stands at $1.56 billion for the state of Florida, as of December 2020, according to the American Gaming Association. There are eight commercial casinos and seven tribal casinos, according to the association.
