(Image source from: License to gamble or sell marijuana?})
Casino means big money in Florida. While the Semolina and the Miccosukee peoples have their own casinos, Alabama based Indian tribe, The Poarch band of Creek Indian want to build a similar casino on land it holds in Escambia County.
Rebuffed so far by Gov. Rick Scott, the Poarch Creek Band of Indians is suggesting it might adopt a hardball negotiating stance: “Let us be offered gambling in few Florida locations or we could consider growing and selling marijuana on our property”.
Stephanie Bryan, chairwoman of the Poarch tribal council has been navigating the negotiation process with Tallahssee and Gov. Rick Scott.
"We are entitled to negotiate a compact with the state," said Stephanie Bryan.
"I don't think it will amount to much," she said. "They go back and forth from saying it will be a warehouse to saying it will be a gaming room."
The Poarch tribal own two exclusive, four diamond casino resorts in Alabama. The tribe wants now to operate bingo-styled slot machines in pari-mutuels in Jacksonville, Pensacola and in a small town just outside Tallahassee, all near Interstate 10. In exchange, the tribe says it will return six permits it has in hand for other locations.
-Smrutirekha
