‘If that’s not a time bomb for addiction, nothing is.’

Calling the online sports-betting provisions in the new Seminole Compact the biggest proposed expansion of gambling ever in Florida, the leader of No Casinos said any discussions of what’s acceptable have to start with that being dropped.

“I’ve called a lot of things ‘the biggest proposed expansion of legalized gambling in the state of Florida’ over the years … but those things pale in comparison with the amount of gambling that would occur with this off-reservation stuff. So I think the beginning of the conversation would be, ‘let’s just quit it’ — with the server located on tribal lands and the gamblers in Pensacola — with the ‘gamblers are gambling on tribal land’ stuff,” John Sowinski, President of No Casinos, said in a Zoom news conference Thursday.

No Casinos, as always with Florida’s gambling expansion proposals, is positioning itself to provide the forefront of opposition to gambling expansion in Florida.

This time it’s to the new deal the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed late last month, ending years of standoff between the tribe and the state. The 30-year pact would provide for nontribal game rooms now operating at pari-mutuel tracks to continue without pari-mutuel operations. In exchange, the tribe could expand its operations to include online sports betting. Florida would get revenue sharing starting at about $500 million a year from the Seminoles.

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