Casino Initiative Legal Fight Dropped

• By Jim Saunders and Dara Kam
• January 31, 2022

TALLAHASSEE — After two months of fierce legal battling, supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at allowing casinos in North Florida have dropped a lawsuit that alleged opponents tried to “sabotage” petition gathering.

Lawyers for the political committee Florida Voters in Charge and petition firms filed a notice of dismissal Monday in Leon County circuit court. The notice did not explain the reasons for the dismissal, but it came a day before a deadline to submit petition signatures to the state Division of Elections.

Florida Voters in Charge, which has received about $50 million from the casino giant Las Vegas Sands Corp., has spearheaded efforts to ask voters to decide whether to allow pari-mutuel operators in North Florida to add casino games to their operations — a proposal primarily geared toward the Jacksonville area.

But Florida Voters in Charge and affiliated petition firms filed a lawsuit Dec. 1 alleging that another committee, firms and people linked to the Seminole Tribe of Florida had tried to sabotage the petition drive. Among other things, Florida Voters in Charge alleged that the opponents poached workers and paid people to stop gathering signatures for the casino initiative.

An amended version of the lawsuit, filed Dec. 7, alleged that “parties acting on behalf of the Seminole Tribe have engaged in concerted and aggressive efforts to harass and intimidate individuals who are exercising their legal right to obtain signatures necessary to place a citizen initiative on the Florida 2022 ballot.”

But the Seminole-backed committee, known as Standing Up for Florida, and that committee’s chairman, Pradeep “Rick” Asnani, fired back, alleging that signatures gathered by Florida Voters in Charge had been “illegally obtained.”

In part, they argued that petition gatherers for the Florida Voters in Charge initiative were being paid by the signature, which would be a violation of state law. In a court document this month, they alleged that the “payment structure based on the amount of signatures collected, as recognized by the Florida Legislature, incentivizes fraudulent signature gathering practices.”

The Seminole Tribe operates the only Las Vegas-style casinos in Florida, though it does not have any facilities across the northern part of the state. The lawsuit was dismissed “without prejudice,” which left open the possibility that Florida Voters in Charge could refile the claims in the future.

To get on the November ballot, Florida Voters in Charge would need to submit 891,589 valid petition signatures to the state by the Tuesday deadline and get Florida Supreme Court approval of the proposed ballot wording.

As of Monday morning, the state Division of Elections website showed 757,036 signatures submitted for the initiative. The Supreme Court would hear arguments on the ballot wording March 8 if it determines such a hearing is necessary.

Supporters of another proposed gambling initiative, which would have legalized sports betting in the state, acknowledged Friday that they would not have enough petition signatures to get on the ballot. That proposal was backed by the major online gambling companies FanDuel and DraftKings.

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