DeSantis called for a special session starting today (27 January) for lawmakers to consider a slew of issues. Most of these align closely with Trump’s agenda, such as stricter immigration policies, voting rights and law enforcement.
But DeSantis’ proposed changes to citizen-led ballot initiatives could drive a wedge between him and Trump while benefitting the Seminole tribe. The two men have a complicated, hot-and-cold relationship.
In a stunning move, the state’s GOP-led legislature refused to consider the bill on Monday and rejected the special session. The issue will return, however, when the regular session begins in March.
The yet untitled legislation would make it considerably more difficult for petitioners to drum up the necessary support by outlawing third-party signature gathering. Currently, citizens can only force a statewide referendum by collecting signatures from 8% of the voting population (approximately 900,000 signatures).
Signature-gathering companies often set up tables in front of department stores, on university campuses, or near big events and solicit voters to sign petitions. Under the new framework, each voter would need to request, fill out and return petition forms themselves. Gathering more than two signatures besides your own would become a felony.
A formidable tribal presence in Florida
For gambling stakeholders, the bill could have massive implications. This is because any expansion of gambling in Florida must secure voter approval through a citizen-led constitutional amendment. Not only that, but the approval must be at least 60%, which itself is a high bar. When combined with a ban on signature gathering, this would make gambling expansion – and other issues – feel all but impossible.
That’s great news for the Seminoles, who operate the only retail casinos in the state and have a monopoly on online sports betting. The tribe in 2021 signed a new compact with DeSantis that allows for that monopoly in exchange for $2.5 billion in payments to the state in the first five years of the agreement.
The Seminoles survived legal challenges to the controversial hub-and-spoke business model, which also lays the foundation for online casino. For now, the tribe remains focused on land-based venues. Its newest retail casino, Seminole Brighton Bay, is set to open on 6 February.
Gaming attorney Daniel Wallach told CNN the initiative proposal “would seal off competition for sports betting and casino gambling” in the state. He added that for a market as big as Florida, such a development would be “unprecedented”.
Trump: “If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”
In an indirect way, the enactment of the proposal could hurt Trump, who has explored opening casinos in the area. In a 2015 GOP debate, former Florida governor Jeb Bush alleged Trump had attempted to pay his way into a gaming licence there in the 1990s.
“Totally false,” Trump replied. “I promise if I wanted it, I would have gotten it.”
The 45th and now 47th president previously operated casinos in Atlantic City through his Trump Entertainment Resorts entity. But his tenure in the industry was tumultuous and fraught with bankruptcies and other scandals. The question now, as his response to Bush implies, is whether he wants to get back in the game. The new president over the weekend met with casino executives in Las Vegas.
Trump owns a golf course in Doral that his son, Eric Trump, told the Washington Post was “unmatched from a gaming perspective”. It’s just over 15 miles from the Seminoles’ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood. The 2021 compact requires that any commercial casinos in the state be 15 miles in a straight line from the nearest Indian Country casino. Doral is outside of the zone, meaning the Seminoles could not contest a gaming facility there.
As Wallach noted to CNN, outlawing signature gathering would create a steep roadblock. But on the heels of a sound re-election, Trump is “one of the few individuals perhaps capable of whipping up that kind of signature support”.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/casino-games/land-based-casino/florida-ballot-seminole-trump/
