Florida To Approve Sports Betting This Year
It looks almost certain that Florida will see sports betting this year and also an expansion of casinos along with the possibility of a casino resort in Miami.
According to local reports in Florida the governor Ron DeSantis has brokered a deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that will see the Tribes given permission to open three new casinos on their land and also have a major control on any sports betting activity in the state.
An announcement could happen as early as today by lawmakers on the deal which still has some way to go before the end of the legislature session on the 30th April. If the deal is approved at state level which could call for a special session to approve the agreement but then still needs any changes to the country’s Indian tribal agreement being signed off by the Department of the Interior (DOI), who has final approval for all matters relating to tribal affairs in the US.
Should all this happen in time then the deal according to reports would see the Seminole Tribe of Florida become the major winner in this, with the tribe given almost exclusive rights on sports betting and no sports betting allowed in a 100 mile radius of all the current seven casinos the tribe operates.
It is understood the tribe would be allowed to use third party operators to run sports betting but the tribes would be given a major piece of the action, currently it is not certain but online sports betting will also be permitted once again under exclusivity of the tribe.
In return the Seminole tribe will pay 10% of all profits from those operators and 13.75% of its own profits to the state. It is thought that would bring in around $600 million a year to the state coffers.
If the agreement is finalised it would last for a term of thirty years and the state lawmakers believe it could boost the tax revenues by as much as $2 billion a year.
However what may be a stumbling block to the deal is the part that allows for a casino resort in Miami, there has been huge opposition from anti-casino protestors but it appears this is in the deal which would bring in an outside operator to the state, indeed only recently the son of the former President of the US, Eric Trump said that the families Trump National Doral would be interested in turning it into a casino resort. Also the owner of the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach, billionaire real estate mogul Jeffrey Soffer has stated he would very much like to run a casino resort on his property.
Only a few months ago this would seem to be a ridiculous idea, but as Friday the 23rd April dawns in Florida residents could learn that it is now reality.
But still there are some powerful players against the proposals and only time will tell if the agreement by the governor and the Seminole Tribe will actually become a reality.
