Bill McCollum

Attorney General Bill McCollum says he has some concerns about the gaming compact that Gov. Charlie Crist signed with the Seminole Indian Tribe on Monday.

But he says the ultimate decision as to whether to accept the deal is up to the state Legislature.

McCollum still insists that until an agreement is approved by lawmakers, the Seminoles are operating cards games at their casinos in violation of state law.

The tribe has continued offering banked card games and class III slot machines even though the Florida Supreme Court threw out the original compact with the state that permitted them to operate those games.

The justices ruled Gov. Charlie Crist lacked authority to enter that agreement without legislative approval.

Meanwhile, Crist says he’s more concerned about what happens if the Legislature doesn’t approve the new deal which would provide the state with a minimum of $150 million a year for 20 years.

Nearly all the money would be used for public schools, state and community colleges, and state universities.

“My concern if we don’t, the Legislature doesn’t, is that the federal government will allow them to do it anyway and then we won’t get a dime of the money,” said Crist.

“Right now the Seminole Indians in my judgment and I think anybody else who looks at it from a law stand point, are committing a crime in the state of Florida but we have no way to enforce that. It can only be enforced by the federal government. However, if the get a compact, whatever terms the compact are, if the Legislature approves it and it goes through and so forth of course then it’ll be the law of the state,” said McCollum.

The agreement signed Monday by Gov. Crist and the tribe would allow blackjack and other banked card games at all seven Seminole Indian casinos -including Broward County locations- not just the four that the Legislature authorized when setting parameters on the deal last spring.

Seminoles and Charlie Crist

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe of Florida began negotiating a new gambling compact Wednesday that would bring revenue to the state in exchange for the tribe’s right to a monopoly on some of its casino games.

Lawyers for the governor and the tribe met in Tallahassee to set schedules and review the issues to be discussed, said George LeMieux, a Tallahassee lawyer and Crist’s former chief of staff who will be a part of the governor’s negotiating team. They will resume discussions in mid-July with a goal of completing the talks by Aug. 31, he said.

The governor must re-negotiate the agreement he signed in 2007 with the Seminole Tribe of Florida because it was invalidated by the Florida Supreme Court a year ago. Since then, the Florida Legislature passed legislation that lays out the framework for what Crist should seek in his talks with the tribe.

Under those guidelines, the state would give the Seminoles the exclusive right to operate slot machines outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties and the exclusive right to banked card games — blackjack, baccarat and chemin de fer — in Broward and Hillsborough counties. In return, the tribe would be expected to pay the state at least $150 million a year.

Barry Richard, one of the tribe’s lead lawyers, has said the dollar amount is too high and the legislative conditions are a non-starter because they would require the tribe to continue paying — but at a lesser rate — if lawmakers give casino games to other parimutuels in the future.

LeMieux said Wednesday that he expects the tribe to reach an agreement with the state despite those concerns. ”The tribe is extremely professional and I believe they will work in good faith to get something done, as opposed to failing to reach an agreement,” he said.

The issues of contention will be the same as they were during the 2007 negotiations, LeMieux said: which games will the tribe receive exclusive rights to, how much will it pay the state, how many casinos will be allowed to offer blackjack and other banked card games and how much regulation will the tribe have to comply with.

The goal of the governor’s office and the tribe is to have a compact signed by Aug. 31, the deadline legislators set out in the bill.

The governor’s team will also include his general counsel Rob Wheeler and his chief of staff Eric Eikenberg. LeMieux said he is volunteering his time to work on the negotiations to “keep some continuity to the talks.”

”The Seminole tribe is pleased that the compact talks are going again and it looks forward to the ultimate resolution of the issue,” said Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the tribe.