Florida's Recent Poker Casino Expansion Worries Mississippi

Seminole casino expansion and recent bills expanding poker and greyhound racetracks that won approval from a Florida Senate committee Tuesday are causing Gulf Coast neighbor Mississippi to consider competitive measures and tax breaks for casinos in order to retain Florida gamblers that represented nearly a quarter of the casino's visitors during 2007.

Last November, Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed a gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida giving the tribe the right to operate gaming facilities at seven locations across Florida, and to hold six no-limit poker tournaments per year. The tribe will pay the state at least $2.5 billion over the next 25 years as a share of the revenue (click here for related article).

FLORIDA'S POKER EXPANSION BILL

This week, Florida's poker expansion bill, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, passed the Florida Senate committee with an 8-2 vote. It paves the way for high-stakes and celebrity tournaments at parimutuels. It would also expand gaming to 18 hours a day on weekdays and 24 hours a day on weekends, reports the Miami Herald. Current law allows card rooms to operate for no more than 12 hours a day.

The bill would also allow parimutuels to host and broadcast celebrity or charity poker tournaments like the ones that have become television mainstays in recent years. They could also have high-stakes tournaments in which up to 1,000 players each pay up to $10,000 in entry fees.

''You have tournaments that are spread across the world, in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, but currently those tournaments are illegal in Florida,'' said Geller, a Hallandale Beach Democrat. "We think this is a great way of generating free publicity for the state.''

The high-stakes tournaments would be allowed twice a year, and the charity or celebrity tournaments would be allowed six times a year under Geller's bill. The legislation requires parimutuel facilities to give at least 70 percent of proceeds from the celebrity events to qualified charities.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee voted 8-2 in favor of the bill, but Geller knows it's still an uphill battle. He unsuccessfullly tried to pass similar legislation about expanding card room hours last year but the measure failed in the House. This year's bill faces two more committees before coming up for a full Senate vote. A House companion has not yet been heard by any panels in that chamber.

MISSISSIPPI'S CONTINGENCY MEASURES

Floridians represented 21.2 percent of visitors to Mississippi's 29 casinos in 2007, according to a memo issued by the Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review. And if half the Florida market decides to stay in that state to gamble at expanded casinos and poker tournaments, Mississippi could lose $254 million in gaming and tax revenue and 3,191 direct jobs, the memo notes.

More conservative numbers show that if 25 percent of the Florida market is lost, Mississippi could lose $75.7 million in gaming and tax revenue and 1,595 direct jobs.

PEER Executive Director Max Arinder told the Clarion Ledger that his staff used information from the state Gaming Commission, the gaming industry and the state of Florida to form a "best guess" of the potential impact. He said Mississippi "would be wise to do a little contingency planning."

"I don't think anybody's saying the sky's falling, but we certainly want to be aware," he said. "These will be very attractive venues, very competitive. Anytime you create a choice (for customers), there's the potential for loss."

So some Mississippi lawmakers are pushing a bill that would give tax breaks for casinos that want to build tourist attractions to woo non-gamers to the state.

House Bill 1196 proposes to allow Mississippi casinos to "diversify in other areas of the state," said House Tourism Committee Chairwoman Diane Peranich, D-Pass Christian. As an example, she cited a Tunica casino that wants to invest in a public-private project to build a sports arena.

The bill would allow tax breaks for casino companies that invest at least $10 million in non-gaming attractions such as theme and water parks, motor speedways and museums. The bill would also offer incentives to high-end hotel and golf course projects.

She warned that legislation similar to the tax-break bill has failed repeatedly in the past. Peranich said the bill will likely head to negotiations between House and Senate leaders.

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