The Seminole Native American group in Florida is accusing the Las Vegas Sands-supported political action committee of dishonesty in its attempts to gather public backing for commercial gambling halls in the state.
The tribe maintains that Florida Voters Responsible for Gaming “clearly disregarded” election regulations and engaged in fraud while collecting signatures to permit commercial casinos in the state.
According to the state’s constitution, any expansion of gambling beyond the Seminole Tribe requires a constitutional alteration that must be endorsed by a statewide vote. A proposal needs to secure 891,589 signatures to be included on the ballot in the 2022 election.
The two groups have been engaged in a legal dispute as Florida Voters Responsible for Gaming asserts that Seminole Tribe representatives “interfered” with their petition endeavors, such as trying to hire employees of the group supporting expansion.
While the case is ongoing, the tribe’s own political action committee, “Stand Up for Florida,” refutes most of the allegations made by Florida Voters Responsible for Gaming. It argues that its actions were warranted in response to the alleged activities of the group supporting expansion.
The political group sponsored by the indigenous group disputed the allegation this week, asserting that it was actually the group backed by Las Vegas Sands that participated in unlawful actions.
Florida advocates stated, “Professional petition gatherers hired by FVC-PAC blatantly disregarded Florida election regulations, not only submitting illegally acquired petitions to election officials, but now trying to use the courts to limit free speech and competitive workforce recruitment based on an unlawful and unenforceable employment arrangement.”
The counterargument claims that the Florida Voters Responsible Committee entered into contracts with several independent contractors who were compensated based on the quantity of signatures they gathered.
Florida supporters provided an agreement between the Florida Voters Responsible Committee and one of its contractors, GPD, which specifies that “total compensation will be determined by the number of valid petitions submitted.” Under this agreement, the contractor would receive $450,000 for every 25,000 signatures collected.
Another contractor, Grassfire, compensated its employees based on the number of signatures their employees collected, as shown in the pay structure chart published on its website.
Florida Statute 104.186 states that “paying petition gatherers based on the number of petitions collected” constitutes a first-degree misdemeanor.
Every employment agreement is unlawful as the initiative is deemed an illicit compensation strategy in breach of Florida’s electoral regulations, and all petitions gathered under the initiative are void, the legal action asserts.
The tribe’s political action group further claims that Florida voters were responsible for “destroying petitions, unlawfully filling in missing data on petitions, and counterfeiting signatures, including those of election administrators.”
The “Stand Up For Florida” organization released images claiming they display the containers used by the Grassfire organization to sort petitions. One container was labeled “Waste.”
“These petitions were discarded at the Grassfire organization’s office, which is thought to have cameras installed,” the counterclaim states.
Because of these accusations, the “Stand Up For Florida” organization is seeking an injunction to declare the signatures gathered by Florida voters invalid.
The Florida Constitution’s provision on gambling expansion is also at the core of another legal dispute in Florida over sports wagering. The Seminole Tribe was permitted to offer sports betting in the state, including statewide online betting, after a new agreement was approved last year.
However, mobile wagering on non-tribal lands was ruled to violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act after a racetrack operator filed a lawsuit, and the tribe’s Hard Rock sports betting website was taken offline.
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