As Las Vegas puts in bid, Florida ponders gambling strategy
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida won't be entertaining bids from the Las Vegas Sands to build a resort-style casino anytime soon, the chairman of the House gambling committee said Thursday.
But lawmakers need to consider options to expand gambling, he said -- after the state reaches an agreement with the Seminole Tribe.
"The time is coming for Florida to step back and catch its breath and figure out what direction it's going to go,'' said Rep. Bill Galvano, after the House Committee on the Seminole Indian Compact Review heard a presentation from the Las Vegas gambling giant. "We cannot continue to function as a piecemeal state where we do an expansion here or a tweak there.''
The Legislature's first priority is to resolve the impasse over the Seminole gaming compact, he said. Current negotiations could result in a shorter-term agreement than originally considered, allowing the state to collect the "dollars that are available to us right away.''
Legislative economist Amy Baker told the committee that by year's end, the state will have set aside $287 million in escrow from revenue-sharing for the tribe's operation of slot machines and card games at its seven casinos -- even without a validated agreement with the state.
Galvano said lawmakers are considering entering into a short-term agreement with the tribe that would allow them to accept the money, and then taking a broader look at state gambling policy, including the possibility of opening the state to resort-style casinos that could bring in more revenue than the compact alone.
"There's no reason we wouldn't enter into the agreement especially when there are dollars available to us right away,'' he said.
Gov. Charlie Crist told the Herald/Times Thursday that he agrees the short-term agreement may resolve the 3-year old stalemate.
The Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns convention and resort casinos in Las Vegas, Singapore, Macao and Bethlehem, Pa., told the committee it was prepared to invest as much as $2 billion to build a destination resort and convention casino in South Florida or Tampa.
Company representatives presented enticing pictures of their resorts that feature entertainment venues, high-end retailers and restaurants run by celebrity chefs.
"We want to build something so spectacular that the draw would be from South America and Europe,'' Andy Abboud, Sands' vice president of government relations, told lawmakers. "We don't want to re-circulate money just here in Florida.''
But investment would come with a price. The company wouldn't pay the 35 percent tax rate legislators are promising Miami-Dade and Broward's parimutuel casinos but would seek something closer to 10 percent. And it would ask for a guarantee that competition would be limited to no more than four other competing resorts, not including the Seminole Tribe's.
"There is a recognition that Florida is a gaming state,'' said Nick Iarossi, the Sands' Tallahassee lobbyist. "People around the state are much more interested in the concept, especially if it's done right.''
Lawmakers reacted with skepticism. Galvano said the near-monopoly on casino games sought by Sands owners was no different than that sought by the Seminole Tribe. Rep. Allan Hays, R-Umatilla, noted that the company's video didn't actually show any gaming.
Baker also presented a report on the financial prospects of auctioning gambling permits, as is done in other states. She said Florida could sustain eight more casinos, and draw between $2.3 billion and $1.5 billion for the permits alone, with millions of dollars more a year from taxes.
But there would be other costs, she said. The state would have to wait at least three years to see the cash while the casinos were under construction and it would lose the revenue sharing money from the tribe.
- The Miami Herald
