Fla. Tracks Fret About Indian Compact

An industry already hit heavily in recent decades by competition for the entertainment dollar is worried that a compact signed this week that gives the Seminole Indian tribe the nearly exclusive right to expanded gambling in much of Florida could hasten the demise of other forms of betting.

"I think it will probably put the nail in the coffin on this thing," said Richard B. Winning, one of the owners of the Derby Lane track in St. Petersburg and president of the American Greyhound Track Operators Association. "They never once came to the pari-mutuels and spoke to us."

The Seminoles and Gov. Charlie Crist signed an agreement Wednesday that allows the tribe to add Las Vegas-style slots and card games including blackjack at seven casinos on tribal land.

The state gets at least $100 million annually from the deal. The Seminoles get a situation in which it's unlikely any other expansions of gambling will occur in Florida outside of Miami-Dade or Broward Counties. If lawmakers do allow new forms of gambling in the rest of the state, the Seminoles will no longer have to give the state the money.

Among the tribe's casinos that will now be able to add full Vegas-style slots and new card games is the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in the Tampa area. It's already been blamed for poor attendance 10 miles away at the Tampa Greyhound Track, which ended live racing in August after 75 years.

Izzy Havenick, vice president of the family-run Naples-Fort Myers Dog Track, said he is deeply troubled by the compact, fearing that patrons will shun the track for a Seminole casino 37 miles away in Immokalee.

He called the deal between Crist and the tribe "a slap in the face of the entrepreneurial spirit of Florida," and to the hundreds of employees of the track in Bonita Springs.

Opponents of the move -- which also include those simply opposed to expanding gambling in the state -- are pinning some hopes on the Legislature, where there is also opposition to the agreement, particularly in the House. Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, has suggested lawmakers may sue to try to block the compact from going into effect.

Havenick said the racing industry is also trying to figure out how they might be able to help fight the deal.

Winning said the state could have raised more money than it gets from the deal if it had allowed the heavily taxed pari-mutuels to add slot machines.

While pari-mutuel facilities -- horse and dog tracks and jai-alai frontons -- in Broward County will still be able to add slots, some officials of those facilities also feel slighted, because they pay more of their take to the state than the Indians. Those facilities also aren't allowed to have expanded card games like blackjack or baccarat that are now permitted in the Seminole facilities.

Crist's chief of staff, George LeMieux, said negotiators in the governor's office did take into account the concerns of non-Indian gambling operations in Broward County, where voters have approved slot machines, noting three tracks there have already spent money to add slots. The state Constitution also would allow slots in Miami-Dade County, if voters approve it, though so far they have not.

"There's nothing in this agreement that prevents them from having more gaming," at pari-mutuel facilities in those two counties, said LeMieux.

But in other counties, the inability to push for more gaming adds to anxiety by track officials that theirs may be a business heading down the backstretch toward its end.

The Melbourne Greyhound Park cut most of its racing program this year, although it continues to host poker, which has proved very popular. The three tracks in the Jacksonville area have consolidated racing at one venue, and tracks in Orlando, the Miami area and Key West have all closed in the last couple decades.

Associated Press Reporter Mitch Stacy in Tampa contributed to this report.