The New Politics of Indian Gaming: The Rise of Reservation Interest Groups

Chapter 5: Florida’s Indigenous Gaming Interests: Origins of a Political Movement

chapter 5 Florida’s Indigenous Gaming Interests Origins of a Political Movement kenneth n. hansen 101 On December 7, 2006, the seminole Tribe of Florida announced they were buying the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino chain of 124 restaurants, four hotels, and two casinos for almost $1 billion (sanders and Berman 2006).1 How and why could they afford to make such a business deal? The purchase was made possible by reinvesting millions of dollars earned through tribal gaming operations. “The deal shows the long-term maturation of Us Indian tribes that have made hundreds of millions of dollars in the gambling business. From roots as operators of small bingo-hall outposts on their reservations, some have become potent entrepreneurs on a wider stage” (sanders and Berman 2006, 1). The purchase represents an effort to diversify the reservation’s economic opportunities with an eye on the future. as discussed in the introduction to this volume, casinos are typically not ends in themselves, but a means to pursue other developmental and political goals, including economic diversification and cultural preservation. The Hard Rock transaction could be viewed as a policy success following nearly three decades of developmental politics, despite periodic opposition 102 t h e n e w p o l i t i c s o f i n d i a n g a m i n g from the state of Florida. The often contentious nature of politics between Florida’s gaming interests and the state government provided important legal precedents for the rest of the United states, and eventually led to the establishment of the Indian Gaming Regulatory act (igra) of 1988 (Eadington 1990; Light and Rand 2005; Mason 2000; Wilkins 2002). This legislation introduced radical change in the evolution of gaming politics by expanding the number of venues through which reservation governments could participate in the policy process, predominantly at the state level. This chapter explores the history of gaming politics in Florida since the late 1970s, explaining the importance of past actions as well as the future ramifications of the contemporary policy equilibrium. The current policy governing the operation of reservation casinos in Florida results from the ruling on Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Butterworth (1981), from igra itself, and from a subsequent interpretation of igra with Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida (1996). The two court decisions, especially the latter, set up a political stalemate between the state and the tribes, since neither ruling provided for a gaming compact. How then is Class III gaming on the reservations allowed to continue without the compacts necessary for such policies in other states? The answer is that there was temporarily a de facto compact between the seminole Tribe and the U.s. Department of the Interior under a provision of igra, resulting from the state’s failure to negotiate with the seminoles in good faith as required by act (Hill 2005; South Florida Business Journal 2008). In 2007 there was a breakthrough in the decades-long impasse between the state and the Florida tribes. Preliminary talks on a gaming compact, which began following the passage of amendment 4 in 2004, fell apart with thengovernor Jeb Bush, but they were renewed under his successor, Governor Charlie Crist. However, the speaker of the state house took the fight to the Florida supreme Court, which overturned the compact, making the prospects for a continuation of Class III gaming as murky as they ever were. That Florida ’s First Nations have had any luck at gaming at all is greatly due to their relationship with the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian affairs. florida natives When the spanish arrived in Florida they discovered a region heavily populated by the Timucua people in the north and the Calusa people in the f l o r i d a ’ s i n d i g e n o u s g a m i n g i n t e r e s t s 103 south, among others (Garbarino 1989). Though some of the indigenous Calusa survive, the Timucuans, which by some accounts may have numbered over a million people, were wiped out by disease and genocidal conflict with invading spaniards (Churchill 1998). Under pressure first from English colonists, and later the americans, led by the genocidal campaigns of General andrew Jackson, members of the Muskhogean nations inhabiting the southeastern United states migrated farther south to Florida...