Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

State may be turning tables on the tracks

Tribe casino games worry the beleaguered parimutuel houses.

By STEVE HUETTEL, Times Staff Writer
Published September 1, 2007

Now they worry that Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature are about to kick them in the teeth by sanctioning new casino games for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

"It's not like we'll lose a few players. It'll crush us," says Vera Filipelli, spokeswoman for Derby Lane, the St. Petersburg greyhound track 22 miles from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa.

Crist's lieutenants and the Seminole officials are negotiating a deal that could bring Las Vegas-style slot machines and table games like blackjack, baccarat and roulette to tribal casinos. The state would receive a cut of revenues estimated at anywhere from $50-million to $500-million a year.

The Seminoles want exclusive rights to operate table games, now illegal in Florida. That could take various forms, such as exclusivity for specific games, geographic areas or a certain number of years.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs insists that states grant exclusive rights in return for a share of gambling profits, said Barry Richard, an attorney for the tribe. That doesn't prevent states from letting other casinos operate the games, he said, as long as their cut of Indian revenues are reduced.

"It's not the intent of the tribe to economically damage anyone else," says Richard.

The Department of the Interior, which oversees Indian Affairs, has given the state a Sept. 11 deadline to reach an agreement, called a compact, with the Seminoles. Otherwise, the feds could allow the tribe upgraded slot machines, leaving Florida without a penny of the proceeds.

Officials at the state's parimutuels -- jai-alai frontons, horse and greyhound tracks -- say Crist is exaggerating the urgency in his haste to find a quick, painless fix for the Florida's looming $1-billion-plus budget deficit.

"It's taken on this aura of a late-night TV infomercial: Act now or you'll lose the deal," says Jim McClellan, spokesman for the Florida Fair Deal Alliance, a parimutuel-backed group opposing a tribal compact.

The state's 25 tracks and frontons generated $35-million for the state in the year ending June 2006. Las Vegas-style slot machines at three Broward County tracks, approved by county voters, in a 2005 referendum, produced nearly $58-million in state revenue since starting operations in November.

If Crist wants to get the biggest bang from gambling, asks Dan Adkins of Mardi Gras Gaming in Hallandale Beach, why not give parimutuels the same games as the Seminoles?

"If you're going to give them exclusivity, you're going to cut off the revenue-producing ability of existing licensed, regulated, tax-paying facilities," he says.

The state's parimutuels have seen business erode over the past two decades in the face of growing competition. First came the Florida Lottery, then nearby Mississippi casinos, Internet gambling and the Seminole Hard Rock Casinos in Tampa and Hollywood.

The Legislature passed new laws this year to help parimutuels. Poker rooms were allowed to increase their hours and betting limits. Tracks now can offer poker games on non-racing days. The Broward "racinos" were permitted to add 500 slot machines and expand operations to 18 hours during the week and 24 hours on weekends.

Officials at two Tampa Bay area tracks, Tampa Bay Downs and the Tampa Greyhound Track, declined to comment or didn't return phone calls about potential impacts of a state compact with the Seminoles.

Sitting at a poker table at Derby Lane Friday, Bob Croneberger of Largo said he'd spend less time at the St. Petersburg track and more at the Hard Rock if the Seminole Tribe brings in Las Vegas-style slots and table games.

"It's going to take away a lot of their business here," he said.

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or at 813 226-3384.

A system of betting on races in which those betting on the winners split the pot based on the size of their wagers, less the cut taken by the track. The term is commonly used to refer to dog and horse tracks and jai-alai fronton.

[Last modified August 31, 2007, 22:22:49]