Editorial: A mess over Seminole Tribe's gaming compact

Monday, July 14, 2008  

"The Florida Supreme Court has made it quite clear that a governor must get legislative consent before signing a document that dictates what is legal and what is not.

It was a welcome ruling that clearly upheld the important separation of powers. The executive branch doesn’t make the laws, the court affirmed. That power must lie with the legislative branch.

What wasn’t cleared up is the controversy over gambling in Florida. In fact, the ruling further muddied those waters.

It’s a mess.

Federal law mandates that the state is obligated to reach an agreement with the Seminoles. The state’s high court says the agreement reached is unconstitutional because it wasn’t ratified by the state Legislature. The Seminoles are continuing to offer the games that the Florida law says is illegal. Federal authorities say they don’t plan to shut down the gaming because the agreement was read into the Federal Registry this past winter.

Questions abound.

Will state authorities move to shut down the blackjack tables? Will the federal court allow the state to do so? If so, will the state get any cut of the millions of dollars that will still be generated from legal games in the casinos? Will this eventually be a victory for the giant, non-Indian gambling industry which opposed the agreement? What will happen at the casino in Immokalee and the money that was earmarked for Collier County in the governor’s agreement?"

Get the Story:
Editorial: Legislature must deal with Indian casinos (The Naples Daily News 7/12)