Blog: Republican wants $1M from Seminole gaming

Thursday, March 19, 2009  

"Sen. Dennis Jones, who chairs the Senate’s Regulated Industries Committee, said the Senate is setting a high goal for a retooled Seminole gambling compact: $1 billion in annual income for the state.

“This issue has the potential of creating $1 billion – easily – of new revenue to the state,” Jones, R-Seminole, said in an interview. “That’d be a benchmark that I would set as chairman: we ought to be able to raise $1 billion.”

The Senate’s revenue-focused approach is far different from the anti-gambling House, which is crafting new compact parameters that would strip out blackjack and baccarat at Seminole casinos. That move would almost surely mean less revenue for the state, since the Gov. Charlie Crist’s $100 million-a-year compact with the Seminoles is based mostly on the right to offer card games.

To get to the $1 billion figure, Jones said the state could tax the Seminoles differently – basing the revenue-sharing agreement on gross income rather than net income, for example – and, in an attached bill, increase pari-mutuel “product lines.”"

Get the Story:
Florida Politics: Sen. Jones sets $1 billion benchmark for Seminole gambling deal (The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 3/19)