Many Florida Citizens might not be aware that Florida Gambling has brought a direct cash infusion int the state of Billions of dollars, direct from the tribes to the state.
Once again, the Seminoles are in court against the state over gambling rights.
At the heart of it, The Seminoles contend that they have paid the government all that they asked and more, and expect them to uphold their agreement that the Seminoles may exclusively operate gambling facilities on their tribal land.
There are two fundamental types of card games in this discussion. One where the casino is the bank – players play against the house. The other where players play against each other, and the house gets a piece of the action.
The state has allowed a gaming licenses where players play against each other, and not the house, in various places, including the dog track, right across the bay from our offices in St. Petersburg. Of course, the Seminoles see this as a violation of their exclusivity agreement.
There is also some question about the difference between the physical and the digital world. That’s a complicated way of saying, are the rules the same for cards that a person holds and shuffles from a deck, as they are for electronic cards when blackjack is played on a machine? Of course, the tribe believes that there are no differences, and they should be treated the same.
Added to this conflict, is a legislature that appears to be dragging their feet passing new legislation, and bad faith insinuations from the tribe to the state, through the court systems.
There’s an excellent breakdown of the argument here:
With the billions of dollars at stake, this is not a low stakes courtroom showdown. We watch these proceedings with great interest as they impact our economy, even though it is not directly debt collection related.