Cooper last month denied the request, leading the committee to file a notice of appeal at the 1st District Court of Appeal. 1 deadline, the Sands-backed committee filed a lawsuit that, in part, asked Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper to extend the deadline.
The Seminoles are the state’s sole casino operators.Īfter falling short of submitting nearly 900,000 valid petition signatures by a Feb. The initiative was designed to allow existing pari-mutuel card rooms in North Florida to offer Las Vegas-style games.
Las Vegas Sands contributed at least $73 million to Florida Voters in Charge, a political committee that sponsored the casino initiative, while the Seminoles spent at least $40 million to keep it from reaching the November ballot, according to the state Division of Elections website. against the Seminole Tribe of Florida and included allegations of death threats against workers gathering signatures for the ballot proposal, accusations that supporters of the measure violated state law by paying workers by the signature and feuding over the tribe’s efforts to “buy off” signature gatherers. The clash over the casino initiative pitted Las Vegas Sands Corp. After spending more than $70 million and wrangling in court for months, backers of a proposed constitutional amendment that would open the door to Las Vegas-style casinos in North Florida have dropped an effort to place the measure on the 2022 ballot.
