Sands sees lawsuit against Seminoles kept alive by judge, but drops restraining order request

A Las Vegas Sands affiliate has dropped a request for a temporary restraining order against groups backed by the Seminole Tribe in a ballot initiative controversy. However, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Angela Dempsey on Friday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit aimed at stopping the Seminoles from blocking a petition-gathering campaign for a constitutional amendment backed by Sands, that would allow card rooms in Florida to operate casinos. 

Entities supposedly backed by the tribe had been accused of allegedly attempting to sabotage a Sands-backed constitutional amendment asking voters to approve a gaming expansion.

The new developments come after a Leon County judge denied the Sands affiliate’s request last week. Judge Angela Dempsey, of the Florida 2nd Judicial Circuit in Tallahassee, denied the casino group’s call for the Seminole-backed team to cease what Sands calls harassment against petition gatherers, reports Florida Politics.

In a statement, Florida Voters in Charge, a group funded by Vegas Sands, reaffirmed its commitment to “pursue legal options to expose and seek damages” from those parties the group sees as having “intentionally and aggressively” attempted to thwart the signature-gathering process.

Florida Voters in Charge and other affiliates of Sands had requested the restraining order after claiming the tribe-backed entities, including Standing Up for Florida and Let the Voters Decide, attempted to prevent the group from getting its initiative to expand gaming signed.

The alleged sabotage efforts include paying petition-gathering firms to not work in Florida, hiring workers to interfere with petition gatherers, and running an informal signature-gathering operation aimed at confusing voters.

Florida Voters in Charge is attempting to  meet a Feb. 1 deadline to submit nearly 900,000 signatures needed to get a gaming expansion measure on the 2022 ballot: the amendment would allow existing card rooms across the state to become casinos if they are located 130 miles from tribe-owned facilities; and three new casinos are being proposed to conduct Vegas-style gaming in Florida.

While Judge Dempsey denied the temporary restraining order sought by the Sands team, she set a hearing to consider the defendants’ motion to dismiss for Friday and an evidentiary hearing on the injunction for Tuesday: the hearing has since been canceled since the group dropped the request.

“Florida Voters in Charge is pleased to announce we successfully achieved the required number of verified petitions for FEIC and Supreme Court review,” the group added in the statement, further reports Florida Politics. “Additionally, we are on pace to gather the remaining signatures to allow Florida voters to decide on the 2022 ballot if they want to expand gaming in Florida.” 

About 246,000 signatures have been verified so far, while nearly 891,589 must be collected to get the initiative on the ballot by Dec. 30, 2021. If the interests working for the Tribe aren’t stopped, Florida Voters in Charge “will not be able to obtain the number of signatures required to place the Gaming Initiative on the 2022 ballot,” the group argues.