U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled Wednesday the state broke an exclusivity deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, part of the 2010 Seminole Compact, allowing it to keep its blackjack and baccarat tables until 2030. It's a decision likely to displease the state.
Gov. Rick Scott's office, hoping to negotiate a contract more lucrative to the state, is already reviewing Hinkle's decision.
Tribe spokesman Gary Bitner expressed his pleasure in his written statement later in the day: “The Seminole Tribe is very pleased with Judge Hinkle's ruling and is carefully reviewing it. The Tribe believes the ruling provides for its future stability and ensures 3,600 Seminole gaming employees will keep their jobs.”
In his 36-page ruling, Hinkle basically said the state had violated the terms of its 20-year gambling compact with the tribe by allowing pari-mutuel gaming operators to offer so-called ‘designated-player’ card games. These games feature one player at each table nominally acting as the house -- although in practice the role is generally farmed out to third-party companies.
In 2010, the Seminoles and the State of Florida signed a 20-year gaming compact that allowed the tribe five years of exclusivity over house-banked card games like blackjack and baccarat. For that, the state got $1.7 billion in revenue sharing. What happened after that was the state authorized state horse- and dog-racing tracks to offer the designated-player games at their cardrooms. The Seminoles cried foul, claiming they were promised exclusivity. The tribe accused the state of reneging on its deal.
In 2015, Gov. Rick Scott reached agreement on a new gaming compact, but it was rejected by the Legislature during the 2016 legislative session. In the interim, the state filed a lawsuit to force the Seminoles to stop offering house-banked games. The tribe responded with its own lawsuit based on "bargaining in bad faith."
Hinkle’s ruling will allow the Seminoles to continue to offer banked games for the duration of their original 20-year compact. Echoing a separate ruling in the state in August, Hinkle called the designated-player games an “egregious example of the cardrooms’ attempt to evade the prohibition on banked card games.”
The tribe said Wednesday’s verdict probably will re-ignite stalled negotiations on a replacement compact. But those close to earlier negotiations say after Hinkle's ruling that puts the Seminoles on an improved legal footing, the state is unlikely to get the $3.1 billion over the first seven years it would have had the Legislature approved the deal last spring.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
