Market update: Florida
Florida Stands Up A New Gaming Regulator Marc Dunbar and Daniel McGinn report on a change to gambling regulation in the Sunshine State after ninety years. F or nearly a century, Florida’s regulated gaming landscape was overseen by a single division within the agency charged with regulating various businesses
industry members and experts into a cohesive movement supported by the Legislature and Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis. The oversight of the legal gaming industry, which grew to gross over US$3.2 billion dollars in 2021, by the agency charged with the regulation of everything from hotels to barbers to veterinarians was no longer feasible. Moreover, with each passing year, more tax revenue was being lost to grey-market slot machine gaming and illegal charitable gaming occurring throughout the state. Due to the restrictions on its regulatory authority, PMW was unable to take effective enforcement action against these machines, even though the machines were judicially determined to be illegal within Florida. Thus, in a 2021 legislative special session, the Florida Legislature laid the groundwork for what would become the Florida Gaming Control Commission (“FGCC” or “Commission”) as part of a comprehensive restructuring of the gaming landscape in Florida. Chapter 2021-269, Laws of Florida, created section 16.71, Florida Statutes, establishing the FGCC within the Department of Legal Affairs of the Office of the Attorney General. Despite its official location, neither the Attorney General nor Department
and professions across the state. From the inception of legal pari-mutuel wagering in the 1931-32 fiscal year, the state’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering and its predecessor, the Florida Pari-mutuel Commission, (“PMW”) oversaw Florida’s legal gaming landscape, which grew to more than 30 gaming locations offering various forms of horse racing, greyhound racing, cardroom poker, the country’s only live jai-alai performances, with slot machine gaming also available at locations in two of the state’s most populous counties. Furthermore, PMW also regularly liaised without regulatory oversight with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, who entered into a gaming compact with the state, and the Miccosukee Tribe, who have chosen not to do so. In the wake of the litigation surrounding both the 2010 Seminole Gaming Compact, that threatened over a billion dollars in mandated payments to the state in 2016, and a state constitutional amendment that would end greyhound racing statewide in 2020, calls for the creation of an independent gaming commission began to coalesce from rumblings by
42 • IMGL Magazine • November 2022
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