Critics question Genting, Gulfstream deal

Gambling giant Genting, Gulfstream Park and the horse industry may have mapped out a slot-machines happy ending, but the Promo Code faces hurdles before the one-armed bandits start rolling in downtown Miami.

Under the proposal, Resorts World Omni, a division of Malaysian-based Genting Group, would operate 2,000 slot machines and a poker room at a hotel on Biscayne Bay. The slots machine license would be associated with a permit owned by a non-profit linked to Gulfstream, where the horse races would continue to run.

But the deal, first reported by The News Service of Florida on Tuesday, would also cost the state a portion of the gambling revenues it receives from the Seminole Indians, according to one of the crafters of the agreement with the tribe.

"Notwithstanding the legal hurdles to accomplish what's being proposed, if that were to occur that would impact the exclusivity provisions of the compact in Dade and Broward," said state Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, who helped write the 2009 agreement with the Seminoles.

The agreement allows the tribe to have Las Vegas-style slot machines at each of its seven locations and gives it the exclusive rights to run banked card games such as blackjack at five facilities. In exchange, the tribe agreed to pay the state $1 billion over five years. The card-game portion of the deal, called a compact, expires in 2015 unless lawmakers and the governor renew it.

The agreement allows the Seminoles to stop paying if slot machines exist anywhere outside of Broward or Miami-Dade counties, except on tribal lands. But the compact also allows the tribe to reduce its payments to the state if slot machines are allowed at any facilities that weren't already operating in Broward or Miami-Dade, except for Hialeah Race Track, when the deal was inked in 2010.

Under the compact, the tribe would have to show that revenues at its Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Broward declined after the new slots began operating. Then, the tribe could cut its payments to the state by half of the amount the Seminoles pay based on revenues earned at the Broward casino, Galvano said. The amount at stake is estimated to be at least $40 million, based on an analysis of revenue projections by state economists.