Florida Supreme Court Voids Blackjack Deal, Costs State Billions
The Florida Supreme Court, continuing its history of appearing on a national stage to deliver convoluted, confusing, and chaos-creating decisions, this morning announced it had found Governor Charlie Crist's compact with the Seminole Tribe allowing the installation of table games and Las Vegas slots to be invalid.
The justices delivered an 89-page decision, in which the court concluded "the governor does not have the constitutional authority to bind the State to a gaming compact that clearly departs from the State's public policy by legalizing types of gaming that are illegal everywhere else in the state."
The court's verdict is stunning, as much for its lack of common sense and disregard for fact as for the mess it now causes the state. The truth is that the compact did not legalize a type of gambling illegal everywhere else in the state. Blackjack, baccarat, and Vegas slots are all considered Class III gaming, which became legal in Broward County when voters approved a measure to allow Vegas slots at racinos.
By legalizing Class III games at the tracks, the state now was forced to deal with the Seminoles' right to offer any form of gambling legal anywhere within state boundaries. Former Governor Jeb Bush refused to negotiate with the tribe, which put the state in the position of having the federal government declare an impasse, which would let the tribe act unilaterally.
Crist came into office on the clock, and arranged the current compact, netting the state $100 million a year in payments for what the Seminoles were going to be able to do anyway, with no tax to the state required. Over the period of the deal, Florida stood to net billions , when a unilateral movement by the tribe would have given the state zilch.
Now, with blackjack and other table games already set up at Seminole casinos, and the state having accepted $50 million as part of the first year's payment, the Supreme Court ignores the situation and throws out the compact.
While both Seminole Gaming CEO James Allen and Seminole Coconut Casino General Manager Steve Bonner withheld comment until the court's ruling could be studied, the tribe faces an order to remove the games. However, this opens a far stickier legal problem, as the tribe is clearly within its federal rights to move unilaterally against a state that hasn't negotiated in good faith, and will likely declare the table games a fait accompli under sovereign status.
The Florida Supreme Court was last nationally relevant during the 2000 Presidential election, in which its rulings were partisan-oriented patchworks of illogic and nonsense, ignoring statutes and creating law at whim.
