Florida continues to work on tribal gaming compact
The government and the Seminole Tribe may be soon to close the new Florida gaming compact.
US.- One month away from the end of the current legislative session, Florida’s gaming compact has yet to be outlined. Unoficially, lawmakers and the Seminole Tribe continue to work on a new deal as the current one is close to expire.
On May 3, the current session will expire, which is why the state needs to pass a new compact to secure the tribe’s payments.
As there were no official propositions yet, Senate President Bill Galvano -who played a key role in the previous deal- didn’t include the tribe’s money in the upper chamber’s proposed spending plan for next fiscal year.
“[Online gaming] has come up. Nobody in the Senate has agreed that online gaming is something that the tribe should have,” Galvano said. The tribe, however, may want Florida’s gaming compact to include iGaming and sports betting.
“We’re midway through (session), but those types of negotiations are valid to continue even if we go past session and into the summer. I think if we continue to operate in good faith, as I’ve mentioned to you all in the past, there are things that are important to the tribe, and we’ll see where we go. But in an abundance of caution and in prudence, we’re not going to incorporate dollars (in the budget) at this time that aren’t guaranteed,” he added.
Governor DeSantis’ take
“If there are things that I consider to be extravagant or pork projects, you probably would end up OK to place wagers that I’ll veto that,” Gov. Ron DeSantis announced. “If it’s things that I think would be beneficial to a larger constituency — rather than just one little piece where they’re trying to deliver pork or a special interest or something — then I’m willing to look at it.”
“I’ll tell you this, I’m in a much better place to engineer good outcomes for taxpayers in Florida having the line-item veto,” DeSantis said. “The Legislature, they’re well aware that I have that. And I think I’ve shown in other areas [that] when I have authority to make a difference, I’m not afraid to wield that.”
