TALLAHASSEE — Washington County has a shot at slots this year, but it needs an amendment to get them.
Multiple media reports misinterpreted language in a 453-page gaming bill (SPB 7052) filed last week, believing it would expand slots; instead, legislative staff members told the Senate Gaming Committee on Monday, it essentially codifies a state attorney general’s opinion that would prevent their installation at pari-mutuel tracks across the state, despite local referenda that approved them.
State Sen. Maria Sachs, though, announced Monday in committee that she filed amendments addressing the problem. She said she believes the countywide referenda should be recognized and the tracks should get the slots.
“The people’s voices should be respected,” said Sachs, D-Delray Beach.
In 2012, Washington County voters approved slots for Ebro Greyhound Park, and the track had a multimillion-dollar expansion plan based on the slots, but Attorney General Pam Bondi’s opinion nixed them. Others have said six counties approved slots without getting them, but Sachs listed eight: Brevard, Broward, Gadsden, Hamilton, Lee, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Washington.
Sachs said popular referenda should be respected and the counties should be allowed to expand gaming based on the voters’ will. She said the pari-mutuel tracks deserve a level playing field to compete with the Seminole tribe’s casinos.
“Sounds like you’re a bettin’ man, Mr. Chairman; maybe you ought to take some more bets here,” she said.
Chairman Garrett Richter, R-Naples, didn’t directly oppose the idea, but said slot expansion didn’t go in the original bill because of its effect on the existing Seminole Compact, part of which is set to expire in 2015.
“As I’ve taken up that particular issue for reflection, my reflection’s been more impacted on its impact on the compact than it has on any (state) constitutionality,” he said.
State Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, who repeatedly has lobbied to expand slots, took aim at the compact Monday.
“To me the decision here is not whether we’re going to expand gambling; the decision here is whether we’re going to continue to protect a monopoly that a sovereign nation has on gambling in our state,” Latvala said.
He said gambling will stay in Florida and advocated for fair treatment of pari-mutuel facilities that have been paying taxes for more than five decades. He said Tampa has the most successful Native American casino in the world and everyone takes that for granted.
“The decision is not, to me, whether to expand gaming; it’s to whether we’re going to protect a monopoly on the gaming that’s already here,” he said.
Latvala said slot machines translate into economic recovery and new jobs. Slots and card games transformed South Florida’s Hialeah Park and improved the area’s economy, Latvala said. The track was a shell in the 1990s, but now it’s a “vibrant economic entity in that community,” he said.
Decoupling
Meanwhile, animal-welfare advocates got some welcome news about a Sachs decoupling amendment, which would eliminate a pari-mutuel requirement that greyhounds run a minimum number of races in order for tracks to operate a card rooms.
Already the comprehensive bill would reduce the race requirement to 100 performances a year (eight races per performance). Ebro must run 167 performances annually.
State Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, also took issue with a separate bill (SPB 7050) that would require a state constitutional amendment to expand gambling in the future. He said he didn’t understand why such a provision is needed, a requirement that a business get state voter approval to expand. He speculated Walt Disney Co. wouldn’t appreciate such an encumbrance.
Clemens poked at his Republican colleagues. He said he’s the over-regulator in every other committee, but when he walks into the gaming committee, he’s the free-market guy.
“I feel like I’m in the ‘Twilight Zone,’ ” he said.