Compacts | Litigation

Seminole Tribe seeks to join case affecting Poarch Creek track

Thursday, June 18, 2015

A view of the Gretna Racing facility in Gretna, Florida. Photo from Facebook

The Seminole Tribe of Florida is seeking to join a lawsuit that will determine whether a racetrack owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.

The Seminole Tribe's Class III gaming compact promises regional exclusivity. At the time it was signed in 2010, the only slot machines allowed outside of Indian Country were in two south Florida counties.

But voters in Gadsden County, in the northern part of the state, approved slot machines in a January 2012 referendum. The Poarch Creek-owned Gretna Racing sought a license for the devices only to be rebuffed by state regulators.

Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal, however, said the facility is entitled to a license The tribe, and the state, fear the ruling could lead to slot machines in other counties.

“The tribe’s self-sufficiency, and indeed its economic survival, depends upon the revenues from the businesses it has built up in reliance on the substantial exclusivity that it bargained for, and that the state agreed to, in the compact," a brief filed with the court stated, The News Service of Florida reported.

The tribe is supporting the state's request for a reconsideration of the May 29 ruling.

Get the Story:
Seminoles Seek To Join Slots Lawsuit (The News Service of Florida 6/18)
Seminole Tribe wants to join legal fight over slot machines (AP 6/17)

Florida 1st District Court of Appeal Decision:
Gretna Racing v. Department of Business and Professional Regulation Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering (May 29, 2015)