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JONI JAMESThe Florida Cabinet okays underwater leases at Tarpon Springs and Treasure Island and drops its past efforts to ban casino ships from docking there.
TALLAHASSEE - Florida's top officials renewed two leases for submerged lands in Pinellas County on Tuesday, ending Gov. Jeb Bush's bold but unsuccessful effort to curb offshore gambling in the Sunshine State.
The Florida Cabinet unanimously approved renewing leases for five years for 5,400 square feet of submerged property for the Billiris family in Tarpon Springs and for 41,962 square feet for the Rice family in Treasure Island. The leases allow gambling ships, which take passengers 9 miles offshore where they can gamble casino-style.
The two properties were the first to be hit, five years ago, when the majority of the state's Cabinet agreed with Bush and then-Attorney General Bob Butterworth that the state should ban gambling ships from using leased state property.
That effort prompted the day cruise industry to sue the state, eventually convincing the state 1st District Court of Appeal that the Cabinet had overstepped its authority by discriminating against gambling ships.
"I'm disappointed, because I'm against gambling and I think we should have that authority" to ban gambling ships from docking on state property, Bush said Tuesday. "The courts said the Legislature did not give us that authority. We appealed, we lost."
Neither of the leases renewed Tuesday is currently the home dock for a gambling ship, although Majesty Cruise, which operates the Majesty One Casino out of Madeira Beach, has a contract with the Rice family and could dock a gambling ship there at any time.
Tarpon Springs sponge merchant and tour operator George Billiris, husband of the city's mayor, said his family, in its 50 years of operating boat rides, has never seriously entertained requests from gambling ships to dock at the site.
"But as long as they're doing it to the north and the south, we don't want our right taken away," said Billiris, who traveled to Tallahassee to watch the Cabinet meeting.
It's the latest defeat for Bush and his mixed record at curbing Florida's longstanding gambling attractions, first cultivated by dog and horse tracks and more lately spurred by the state Lottery and Indian casinos.
Earlier this summer, gambling advocates collected enough signatures for a citizen initiative on the November ballot that, if approved, would allow residents of Broward and Miami-Dade counties to consider allowing casino-style gambling at existing dog and horse tracks and jai alai frontons.
Last year, Bush declined to veto a bill that permitted higher stakes in card rooms at dog tracks and jai alai frontons and allowed horse tracks to run card rooms at the same time as evening simulcast race transmissions.
But in March, the governor thwarted some veterans groups and charities hoping to sell instant bingo games where cards are printed with winning numbers and players peel away covers to reveal their hand.
Bush vetoed the measure, overwhelmingly approved by the Legislature, saying he believed it would violate the state Constitution, which authorizes only the Florida Lottery to run lottery games.
"I just don't see this as a good economic policy or social policy," Bush said. "I find it counterproductive to building a better Florida."