TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - House Speaker José Oliva indicated Wednesday that lawmakers won’t be able to finalize a gambling deal before the scheduled end of the legislative session on March 13.
Speaking to reporters after a floor session, the Miami Lakes Republican noted that the 60-day session will not end on time because of delays in finalizing a state budget.
Even so, cementing a perennially elusive gambling agreement between the state and the Seminole Tribe of Florida remains a long shot.
“Logistically, it’s very difficult for that to happen,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that it’s dead, but for the regular scheduled session, next Friday the 13th, probably difficult.”
Oliva’s remarks came a day after Senate President Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican who was instrumental in the passage of a 2010 agreement with the tribe, and Gov. Ron DeSantis held out hope that a deal could be nailed down.
Galvano said Tuesday that lawmakers had “made progress internally, and we are now engaged in negotiations with the Tribe” on what is known as a gambling compact.
On Wednesday, Oliva said the gambling talks were “moving slowly.”
Oliva said negotiators are trying to develop a proposal “that addresses the main concerns that have broken down negotiations in the past,” referring to “some of the existing games” and “whether some of those existing games create a violation of the (2010) compact or not.”
“Those are sticking points,” he added.
A new compact is not imminent, Oliva said.
“Rather than try to roll something out with only a few days left in session, we’re trying to have conversations about these things in a way that, if we can reach agreement on how they should be possibly pursued, then maybe we could put a piece of legislation forward to go to committees, to be vetted that way and then brought to the floor,” he said.
With the end of the session on the horizon, House and Senate committees have stopped meeting.
The “sticking points” Oliva referenced were almost certainly “designated player” card games offered by many pari-mutuel facilities throughout Florida. Those games have been at the heart of a legal dispute between the state and the tribe.
Sources close to the talks now underway maintain that the Legislature’s proposal would allow pari-mutuels to continue hosting the controversial card games, which could be a deal-breaker for the Seminoles.
Pari-mutuel cardrooms, especially those outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties that are not allowed to have slot machines, have grown to rely heavily on designated-player games as their major sources of revenue. Pari-mutuels contend that thousands of jobs --- and tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the operators --- would be lost, were the games to go away.
But, agreeing with the Seminoles, a federal judge ruled that the card games violate the 2010 compact, which gave the tribe “exclusivity” over operating banked card games, such as blackjack. That agreement, however, expired in 2015, prompting discussions about a new compact, which would have severely pared the designated-player games.
Under a settlement with former Gov. Rick Scott, the tribe continued to pay about $350 million a year to the state. But in May, the Seminoles made good on threats and quit the longstanding revenue-sharing agreement.
The tribe stopped its payments following the demise of a potential deal they had reached last spring with Sen. Wilton Simpson, a Trilby Republican slated to take over as Senate president after the 2020 elections.
DeSantis, who took office in January 2019, rejected the plan last spring, saying he needed more time to scrutinize its details.
The urgency to finalize a compact with the tribe --- and reap its financial benefits --- has escalated for lawmakers grappling with a potential economic crunch caused by the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19.
The deal under discussion could bring the state up to $700 million, if the tribe agrees. But it is unlikely the Seminoles would sign off on any compact that does not do away with designated player games --- unless the tribe gets a major concession in return.
The governor said Tuesday “there’s a good chance” that Galvano could reach an agreement with the tribe, even if it meant coming back for a special session.
But Oliva said Wednesday “we’re not having conversations” about a special session.
“Certainly, if something was done that everyone could agree upon, I would not be against a special session, if we could finally get this behind us. But if not, there’s a lot of details we can work out for future legislatures. There’s a lot of work we can do now, for them,” he said.