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Miami Beach Mayor Urges DOI to Reject the New Florida-Seminole Gaming Compact
By Jeff Osienya Jun 06, 2021 LegalityHeavy pushback from Miami Beach Mayor after Florida’s recently inked tribal-state compact was sent to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). The mayor insists that the bill violates state and federal law and was drafted with hidden non-tribal agendas.Dan Gelber, the mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, is going after the new tribal-state gaming expansion compact with guns blazing, calling for the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to reject it. On Thursday, the Miami Beach mayor sent a lengthy nine-page letter to DoI Secretary Deb Haaland raising concerns about Gov. Ron DeSantis’s arrangement with the Seminal Native American tribal nation.
After months of negotiations, Gov. DeSantis and Marcellus W. Osceola Jr, the chairperson of the Seminole Tribal Nation, finally agreed on a 74-page tribal-state gaming expansion arrangement in April. This new compact grants the Seminole tribe exclusive rights to offer a full slate of casino games in the state. Additionally, the tribe will also be receiving 40% of the profits generated from any sports betting activity conducted in Florida.
In return, the Seminoles would then guarantee The Sunshine State an annual revenue of $20 million in a revenue-sharing agreement for the next 3 decades. So, over the 30 years, Florida is expected to rake in $500 million from the deal. When the compact was tabled in the state legislature last month, it received overwhelming support and was passed in the Senate and House on May 18th and 19th, respectively. After Florida legislators gave the tribal-state compact a thumbs up, Gov. DeSantis signed it off about a week later, on May 25th.
Following Gov. DeSantis’s approval of the Seminole gaming compact, the only remaining hurdle for the bill before it can take effect is an okay from the DOI. After the governor’s signature on the compact, the DoI has 45 days to either approve, reject or take no action. Mind you, if the DOI decides not to take any action, state law considers the non-action an approval.
But now, the mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, is pushing for DOI’s rejection of the deal, suggesting that it sidesteps the law and was passed in the legislature with ulterior motives.
Gov DeSantis Dismisses Gelber’s Calls to Reject the Seminole Gaming Compact
Aside from the question of whether the compact is legal or not based on how opposers of the compact interpret the state and federal law, Gelber’s letter claims that the compact contains language that has non-tribal intentions. In the letter to the DOI, the mayor says in part:
Quote“I support the goals of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”), namely, to provide Native American tribes with a pathway to greater independence and economic vitality. But the Florida Compact you are considering was not crafted in pursuit of those goals. It was simply a vehicle hijacked by non-tribal casino interests who fully corrupted the legislative and executive process in order to obtain advantages outside of tribal land and in direct contravention to the interests of Floridians.”
Gelber has been a longtime antagonist of casino gambling within his jurisdiction in Miami Beach. In the DOI petition, he cited the fact that the compact comes with a clause that required the Seminoles to agree to commercial gambling outside a 15-mile radius from the tribe-operated Hollywood casinos.
The mayor then goes ahead and indicates that with this clause, Gov DeSantis’s intention is to benefit his “non-tribal political donors” and his principal political patron – referring to Donald Trump, the former U.S. president. Gelber and other opposers of the compact have been speculating that the former president has plans to transfer a casino license to his struggling Miami Beach Trump Doral Resort and then potentially sell it off to another casino operating company. Another known political benefactor of Gov. DeSantis, Jeffery Soffer, who owns the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, has also been seeking a casino license for his resort,
DeSantis, however, came out to defend the compact in a media event on Thursday, indicating that he and the Seminoles are confident that the bill will receive DOI’s approval. He referred to Gelber’s conjectures as "ridiculous" and said in part:
Quote“Why would I want to agree to a Compact that’s going to trigger a violation potentially, especially for things I may not be able to (have) control over in the future? Who knows what’ll end up happening? I think it’s just an example of some of these partisan politicians always trying to elevate themselves with any type of cheap headline they can get trying to inject Trump into this. There’s not going to be any type of transfer within Miami-Dade County. The Legislature flatly rejected that. If there was any attempt at transferring a license, the Legislature would have to approve it. I don’t know what would happen...That’s up to the Legislature."
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