Hollywood, Florida - Blackjack and baccarat are among the card games now available at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The Hollywood casino unveiled 71 new card tables, including about 55 for blackjack. The rest are divided among mini-baccarat, pai gow, Let It Ride and Three Card Poker. Bets up to USD 10,000 can be made in a special high-limit room.
The Seminole Indians are proceeding with plans to make South Florida an even bigger tourist attraction than it already is. While involved in legal battles over their expansion, the Seminoles are still moving forward with expanded gambling plans for their casinos. Late this week the Seminoles held a press conference to map out their plans for bringing blackjack to their Hollywood Hard Rock Casino. The blackjack will become a reality on June 22nd.
Pompano Park's Isle Casino is suing to keep the Seminole Tribe from offering so-called banked card games at its Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, claiming the games violate the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. In November, Gov. Charlie Crist signed a 25-year compact with the Seminole Tribe that allows it to operate Las Vegas-style slot machines and card games in seven existing facilities on tribal lands, including Tampa, in exchange for minimum annual payments of USD 100 million to the state.
The state’s only Las Vegas-style slots outside South Florida could flash and spin as soon as next week at Tampa’s Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. A public debut for 725 new machines is set for May 1. But the first few will go live a week to 10 days earlier, said casino president John Fontana. “It’s exciting to not have to hold anything back and have all the tools in the tool box,” he said. The Seminole Tribe of Florida won the right to operate slots at its seven Florida casinos under a deal signed by Governor Charlie Crist and approved by federal officials in January.
David Witte drove all night to join hundreds of fellow casino dealers in Hartford. But he wasn't interested in Connecticut. His final goal was Florida. The riverboat casino dealer from Indiana traveled 14 hours to the Connecticut Convention Center to interview for a job with the Seminole Hard Rock casinos Tuesday morning.
Miami (AP) - The Seminole Tribe of Florida is about to start hiring workers for blackjack and other card games it plans to soon offer at its casinos, even though the compact with Gov. Charlie Crist allowing the games is being challenged in the Florida Supreme Court. The tribe will begin running print advertisements Friday that pitch job openings for 3,650 dealers for blackjack, baccarat and pai gow, which is a form of poker.
A slot machine casino approved but unbuilt at Dania Jai-Alai is too risky a bet -- for now. A spokesman for Boyd Gaming, owner of the fronton, announced Wednesday that South Florida market conditions -- including a ''prohibitively high'' state tax rate, the continued poor performance of three other Broward casinos and competition from Seminole Indian casinos -- mean the company will indefinitely postpone plans to develop a slot-machine casino at the jai-alai property.
Hollywood, Florida - Purse in hand and eyeglasses on, 80-year-old Ruth Spivak stood behind a velvet rope just steps away from the bright lights, musical chiming and big jackpots. Las Vegas-style slot machines have come to Florida, and Spivak was one of hundreds who showed up Monday to feed dollar bills or casino debit cards into the 800 new machines at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
Hollywood - They didn't get this far without a little gamble in them. The Seminole Tribe, which defeated the state and federal governments in court three decades ago to usher in the Indian casino era, said Thursday it will immediately install Las Vegas-style machines at its Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. The games go public Monday, just two days before a crucial Supreme Court hearing on whether a deal approving the new games is even legal.
The Seminole Tribe paid USD 50 million to the state Monday, as required under its gambling agreement with Gov. Charlie Crist, after the controversial deal became official. "Today's transfer of USD 50 million to the state of Florida is just the beginning of revenue that will potentially provide billions of dollars to Florida's schools during the next 25 years," Crist said in a statement.
For five years, government regulators have been aware of misspending of gambling profits by Seminole tribal leaders in violation of federal law but have taken no enforcement action. Indian leaders elsewhere in the country have been cited for using tribal funds on such things as Super Bowl expenses and accepting free jackets worth USD 1,330.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida (AP) -- Leaders of the Seminole Tribe of Florida -- the first U.S. tribe to offer high-stakes gambling -- have spent millions of dollars from the group's vast casino income on themselves and their relatives, according to a report. The spending has triggered audits by federal regulators and complaints among Seminoles that the gambling profits benefit certain members at the expense of the rest of the tribe...
