Florida Giving Table Games to Seminoles?

The Seminole Tribe tried for years to get slot machines, and were repeatedly turned down. Governor Bush refused to give them slot machines, and as it wasn’t legal in the state – he didn’t have to. However, now Broward County has legalized slot machines, which means that the tribe has a right to them as well, and the state of Florida is up the creek.

Had Bush negotiated with the tribe and given them slot machines, the state could probably have gotten a pretty good deal, and a nice amount of income from them. But now that under the law they are entitled to them, they don’t have to give us a dime of that slot machine revenue.

So now that they are allowed slot machines anyway, the state of Florida has to up the ante to get any kind of revenue from the tribe. Now our new Governor, Charlie Crist, is talking about giving them table games so that we can get money from the tribe. The Seminoles would then be getting something that no one else has, so it could seem of benefit to the tribe to give the state some of the profits for that right.

However, they could just take their slot machines and walk away, for they have the right to do that. It probably depends on how much the tribe wants table games, if they want them at all. The state had more than two decades to come to some sort of agreement with the tribe, at which point they would have their slot machines and we would have had some of the revenue. Instead, now they can pretty much dictate what they get.

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