Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom has appointed a committee to review the state’s controversial gambling compact with the Seminole tribe.

The compact, signed last year by Governor Charlie Crist, allows Las Vegas-style slots and card games at the tribe’s seven casinos in return for millions in payments each year to the state.

The deal was invalidated by the state Supreme Court in July. The court agreed with former House Speaker Marco Rubio that Crist had no authority to make the 25-year compact without legislative approval; thus far, the only Seminole casinos offering table games are in Hollywood and Tampa.

Crist declared last month that he will make legislative ratification of the compact a priority. “It is important to me; I think it’s important to Floridians,” Crist said. “And we need the money.”

The newly formed House panel, headed by Republican Larry Cretul, will make its recommendations on the matter by the first week of March, when the legislature reconvenes. The committee could recommend ratifying the compact, modifying it or throwing it out.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has tried to force the tribe to shut down the table games in the wake of the compact’s invalidation by the Supreme Court, but has been stymied at every turn.

Florida’s racinos have also complained that the inclusion of Class III slot machines and table games at the Seminole casinos puts them at a competitive disadvantage and want the legislature to make accommodations for them, also, either in the form of legalization of tables for the racinos or reducing the exorbitant tax rate.

By GGB Staff

Staff writers for Global Gaming Business magazine. Las Vegas, Nevada.