McCollumn vs. Indian Gaming

While of course Florida Attorney General Bill McCollumn would argue that he is against illegal gambling (not all Indian Gaming in the country) it is definitely true that McCollumn is against any form of slot machines in the state of Florida. Florida of course, has not joined the list of states who have OK’d slots, and so any tribe that is operating the machines is automatically breaking the law. The Seminole Tribe, he says, is one of the tribes that is running illegal slot machines, and he has sent an official letter to the Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission to order the tribe to stop the activity immediately.

Unfortunately, even though Indian gaming is against the law in Florida, the state does not actually have the jurisdiction to prosecute and enforce the law, because of a highly controversial compact that the governor of Florida signed with the Seminole tribe. Even though the Supreme Court has deemed this pact unconstitutional, there is still nothing McCollumn can do in his crusade against slot machines.
 The compact of course, was the governor’s attempt to preserve the revenues that the state was receiving from gaming activity, and signing that compact was the only way that he would be able to do that. The state of Florida, like the rest of the country is in dire need of funds, and it looks like gambling and slots is becoming the most attractive and sensible way to keep taxes low while finding new ways to bring in much needed money.

Back to September 2008 Archive.