Florida Moves Closer to Vegas!!!

[TedinNaples]

Great news for fgk42, felix215, floridagirl39 and some other regular online BJT players who live in Florida:

While it's not written in stone yet, here's something from today's news:

Gambling pact between state and Seminole Tribe adds games to casinos.
The casino has 3,200 slot machines.
It has a poker room with 50 tables.

It has a high-limit gaming area. A VIP lounge and swank restaurants. An impressive "Wonderwall" video waterfall projects images on a curved wall of Plexiglas while water cascades down its surface.

It's not Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

It's the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa.

And with the stroke of his pen this week, Gov. Charlie Crist moved the Tampa casino - as well as six other Seminole-owned gambling facilities - closer to a full-fledged casino by giving the tribe the ability to install Las Vegas-style slot machines as well as offer popular card games like blackjack and baccarat.

If it survives an expected court challenge, Crist's deal with the Seminole Tribe will change the face of gambling in Florida, a state where voters have historically opposed mega-casinos.

It will bring a gambling style to Florida far closer to Las Vegas and Atlantic City than ever before.

The U.S. Department of Interior has 45 days to approve the gambling compact.

If that happens, as expected, Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, said the tribe would expect to begin offering the more sophisticated slot machines and card games sometime next year.

 

[LeftNut]

That would be very good news, and the Tribe(s) could then offer Class III video poker machines, truly random, instead of the Class II bingo-based games currently in place.

 

[fgk42]

Compact Between the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida November 14, 2007

Why is a compact needed?

Based upon the constitutional amendment allowing slot machines in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, in the absence of a compact, the federal government tomorrow will approve a request from the Seminole Tribe of Florida to allow slot machines on tribal lands. This approval will provide no benefit to the State of Florida unless a compact is approved by both the state and the tribe. What gaming is allowed by the compact?

The 25-year compact gives the Seminole Tribe of Florida the right to do the following:

• Operate Class III slot machines and banked card games (such as black jack and baccarat) at the seven existing facilities on tribal lands (Immokalee, Big Cypress, Brighton, Hillsborough, and three locations in Broward County).

• Conduct six no-limit poker tournaments each year, with 70 percent of the revenue going to charitable organizations What is the Seminole Tribe of Florida required to do?

• The Seminole Tribe of Florida will –

o Pay the State of Florida $50 million upon approval of gaming by the federal government.
o Guarantees an annual minimum payment to the State of Florida of $100 million in the first year, $125 million in the second year and not less than $150 million in the third year.
o After the second year, the state will receive between 10 and 25 percent of the revenue, depending on total revenue amounts. The revenue sharing schedule is as follows:
Up to $2 billion, 10 percent
$2 – $2.5 billion, 12 percent
$2.5 – $3 billion, 15 percent
$3 – $4 billion, 20 percent
$4 – $4.5 billion, 22.5 percent
More than $4.5 billion, 25 percent

o Maintain a comprehensive compulsive gambling prevention program.

o Submit revenues to an independent annual financial audit.

o Maintain a legal process for compensating patrons for injuries.

o Ensure consumer protection through compliance with national gaming standards, state building codes and inspections, audits and monitoring of games, financial records and internal procedures.

o Make provisions for smoke-free gaming.

o Patrons must be age 21 and older.

For the rest of the summary:

http://media.tbo.com/tbo/pdfs/1114summary.pdf

Now the BAD PART:

The idiots in the legislature are already planning on taking this to court which will delay the entire deal! What assess they are :flame:

Finally - NO CRAPS! :flame: :flame: :flame:

 

[felix215]

I hope its not carnival blackjack

6:5 or CSM or 12deck 50% cutoff or etc. etc.

Thus hurting the Bahamas and killing the boats and getting nothing back

 

[fgk42]

6:5 or CSM or 12deck 50% cutoff or etc. etc.

Thus hurting the Bahamas and killing the boats and getting nothing back

No decision about the TYPE of game: Just deck games, BJ, Baccarat and the french version where players can rotate being the banc

Actually I don't think it will hurt the Bahama's that much (Atlantis or Cable Beach) the boats on the other hand will DEFINATELY be hurting. I would image they (Sun Cruz) will have to give deep promotions to get players. The recently completed their OFFSHORE Poker Tournament in which the first place was 10,000 & a seat to WSOP.

Hey maybe this would open the door to TBJ on the Sun Cruz ships - Rick are you listening?