Fontainebleau owner pours money into PACs as bills could bring casino to Miami Beach
The billionaire owner of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach made hefty donations in recent months to Florida lawmakers who could help him achieve his longtime goal of opening a casino inside the iconic hotel, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.
Entities tied to real estate mogul Jeffrey Soffer poured more than $300,000 last year into PACs supporting state legislators, including nine Republicans who represent Miami-Dade County.
As the two-month legislative session begins this week in Tallahassee, identical bills filed in the Florida House and Senate propose letting gaming permit holders transfer their permits to a new location within 30 miles, and would override any local government restrictions on gambling.
Specifically, the bills say those with greyhound dog racing permits and authorization to conduct casino activities — such as Soffer’s Big Easy Casino in Hallandale Beach — should be allowed to relocate the operation of “all pari-mutuel wagering and gaming activities.”
Opponents of gambling in Miami Beach, where gaming facilities have been banned citywide since 2017, say the bills appear tailored to bring a casino to the Fontainebleau.
“They’ve been trying for years,” said John Sowinski, the Orlando-based president of anti-gambling group No Casinos. “Miami Beach is among the most anti-casino jurisdictions anywhere in Florida because they’ve so often been the target for a casino.”
Soffer’s recent political spending has included $15,000 in September to Principled Moral Conservatism, a PAC chaired by Rep. Alex Rizo (R-Hialeah), the sponsor of the House bill to allow the transfer of gaming permits.
Through entities tied to the Fontainebleau and Big Easy Casino, Soffer has also given:
$50,000 in September to the Republican Party of Florida.
$25,000 in June to the Florida Senatorial Republican Campaign Committee.
$10,000 apiece to PACs chaired by, or affiliated with, eight Miami-Dade lawmakers: Reps. Bryan Avila (R-Miami), David Borrero (R-Sweetwater), Demi Busatta Cabrera (R-Coral Gables), Tom Fabricio (R-Miami Lakes), Alina Garcia (R-Miami), Juan Porras (R-Miami), and Sens. Alexis Calatayud (R-Miami) and Ana Maria Rodriguez (R-Miami).
Soffer and two lobbyists who represent him did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
Dan Gelber, the mayor of Miami Beach for six years until November and a staunch gambling opponent, has called the legislation an “existential threat” to his community.
“Casinos help exactly two groups: the owners of the casino and the politicians who take their contributions,” said Gelber, a former state lawmaker. “For everyone else, just crime, intolerable traffic and economic despair.”
“Unfortunately, this is entirely transactional,” he added. “Floridians don’t want this, certainly my city doesn’t, but this unseemly amount of money will buy you friends and supporters, even for something so obviously damaging. Hopefully, there are some legislators who understand this and will hold the line.”
Soffer has gone to great lengths in the past to pitch his vision of transferring a gambling permit from his Broward-based Big Easy Casino to the Fontainebleau. In 2020, he invited elected officials onto his megayacht to sell the idea, with football legend Tom Brady aboard.
Since 2018, the year Soffer purchased the Big Easy — known then as the Mardi Gras Casino and Race Track — his companies have made more than $2.5 million in political donations, according to state records. That includes a combined $250,000 in 2021 and 2022 to a PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The compact
So far, Soffer’s push for legislation that would allow gambling at the Fontainebleau has come up short. But the conditions could be ripe for that to change.
Among the factors helping Soffer’s chances are a 2021 deal negotiated by DeSantis with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, under which the tribe can exclusively offer online sports betting across the state and agreed not to oppose new casinos more than 15 miles from the tribe’s gambling hubs in the Hollywood area.
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is about 17 miles from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood.
READ MORE: New Florida gambling bills puts Miami-Dade casino opponents on high alert
Still, the pending legislation — Rizo’s bill in the House and a Senate version sponsored by Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) — is already facing resistance from opponents who say it would violate Florida voters’ hard-earned rights to restrict gambling in their communities.
A 2018 constitutional amendment approved in a statewide referendum gave voters the exclusive right to authorize casino gambling expansions, including slot machines and electronic betting games. The effort was backed by a powerful group that included auto magnate Norman Braman and developer Armando Codina.
An earlier constitutional amendment said Miami-Dade and Broward counties could add slot machines at “existing, licensed parimutuel facilities.” The slots permit held by Soffer’s Hallandale Beach facility was approved by voters in Broward County in 2005.
“Putting aside impacts to traffic and public safety, overriding local regulations adopted by local governments and overriding the electorate ... seems to be the most undemocratic approach to policymaking on any matter, especially something with such great consequences to a community,” said Miami Beach City Commissioner Alex Fernandez.
Sowinski, the No Casinos president, said he believes the proposed legislation is “patently unconstitutional.”
“The record is crystal clear as to what voters approved,” he said.
The bills’ sponsors, Rizo and Ingoglia, have not responded to requests for comment. Hearings on the bills have not yet been held.
Asked this week about the proposed changes to Florida’s gaming laws, House Speaker Paul Renner didn’t address the bills specifically, telling reporters his focus is on ensuring the success of the 2021 deal between the state and the Seminole Tribe.
The 30-year deal, known as a compact, says the Tribe will pay the state about $20 billion, including $2.5 billion over the first five years of the agreement. The Tribe expects to pay the state at least $650 million over the next year.
“My focus is on making sure we get set up on the compact, don’t stub our toe, get off to a good start and get that money flowing in to help Florida’s infrastructure, especially for the environment,” Renner said Tuesday, the first day of the 2024 legislative session.
The compact, which has been subject to legal challenges for more than two years, authorizes the Seminoles to offer craps and roulette at their casinos and add three casinos on tribal property in Broward County. It also allows gamblers to place mobile sports bets anywhere in the state, with wagers handled by computer servers on tribal land.
