Dive Brief:
- The Seminole Tribe of Florida presented the details of its $1.8 billion Hollywood, FL, Hard Rock casino expansion plan — silver guitar-shaped hotel and all — to Florida Gov. Rick Scott this week, according to the Miami Herald. If approved, tribe officials say the development would create 14,585 construction jobs and 4,867 full-time jobs upon completion.
- The plan would give the tribe exclusive rights to operate blackjack, craps and roulette in its seven casinos for 20 years in exchange for revenue-sharing payments to the state, with a guarantee of $3 billion over seven years beginning in 2017. The sliding scale payments would rise with the tribe’s profits.
- Although Scott has approved a compact between the state and the tribe for the deal, the state Legislature must ratify it, and any such measure increasing the tribe’s gambling operations is already facing opposition from some legislators and rival gambling operators.
Dive Insight:
The Seminole Tribe’s plan also calls for a second, 500-room hotel tower, along with new dining and retail, at an existing Seminole Hard Rock casino complex in Tampa.
Scott called the Seminole deal the "biggest compact ever signed," the Herald reported.
The Hollywood reservation expansion plan, along with the 800-room hotel, includes five restaurant and club venues. The hotel will feature Bora Bora-style cabanas — which provide guest access to a VIP pool — and extended-stay villas for long-term visitors, the Herald reported.
The compact Scott is touting will not only provide new jobs, but will preserve 3,500 existing jobs held by Hard Rock game dealers and other employees, according to Scott, as a provision allowing certain gaming in the previous compact expired last summer.
Opponents, primarily rival gaming companies, say the compact gives the tribe an unfair advantage that would mean "the slow death" of the parimutuel industry in Florida, which would also mean employees in that industry would lose their jobs as well.
The Seminole casino news follows other big casino and resort company announcements for major projects in Las Vegas, Hawaii and the Boston area.
Developer Genting Berhad is building a $4 billion Chinese-themed resort and casino in Las Vegas and said the project will create 30,000 construction jobs in the area. In Hawaii, Atlantis Resorts is close to finalizing a deal to build a $2 billion ocean-themed resort with an interactive aquarium, a dolphin encounter and a shark habitat.
And just outside of Boston, Wynn Resorts Ltd. is developing a $1.7 billion, three-million-square-foot casino-resort complex that is expected to create 4,000 union construction jobs over the next two years and 4,000 permanent jobs by the end of 2018 when the complex opens.