Las Vegas Sands sues Seminoles-linked groups over major gambling expansion in Florida
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The casino giant, founded by the late gaming mogul Sheldon Adelson, alleges that the Tribe is paying off petition gatherers to break previous agreements to collect signatures on behalf of the Las Vegas Sands-backed ballot measure. The payments, according to the lawsuit, were designed to get petition gatherers to join the “other side” and collect signatures for an informal Tribe petition drive or not work in Florida at all. It’s a dynamic that Las Vegas Sands says is putting at risk the petition drive it has already spent $27 million in support of.
“In addition to their coordinated harassment and intimidation campaigns, parties acting on behalf of the Seminole Tribe are 'paying off' contracted petition circulators as part of a scheme to ensure such circulators do not perform the tasks they have been contracted to provide to the Plaintiffs,” read the lawsuit, which seeks to stop the alleged interference as well as unspecified monetary damages.
The lawsuit offers a window into the cutthroat rivalry between major casino operators, where billions of dollars are at stake and the future of expanded gambling in Florida could be decided.
The plaintiffs include Florida Voters in Charge, a Las Vegas Sands-funded political committee supporting the ballot effort and a handful of petition gathering firms that accuse Seminole-backed groups of harassing petition gatherers. They also accuse the Seminoles of trying to pay signature gatherers to not support the ballot measure, which would allow existing card rooms to become casinos if they are 130 miles from a Tribe-owned facility.
The lawsuit includes text messages outlining the alleged scheme from Seminole-linked groups to private investigators working with Human Connections, a petition gathering firm working on behalf of the Las Vegas Sands ballot measure and a plaintiff in the case.
The six-page lawsuit, penned by Foley & Lardner attorney James A. McKee, includes detailed allegations of the Seminole-backed efforts to pay off rival petition gatherers. In one case, a private investigator working for Human Connections — identified as “Circulator A” in court documents — was approached by a woman identified in court documents as Ginger Donat who offered $2,000 for the private investigator to work for the Tribe, and that she would get $500 if the investigator defected to the “other side.”
Payments between Seminole-backed groups to their rivals were allegedly delivered in a Maitland, Fla. office run by Missouri-based Only Petition Works, LLC. When going to collect payment at that office, the private investigator identified as “Circulator A” was also told by Donat that the Tribe was paying petition gatherers from other states $7,000 dollars to simply leave the state for at least six weeks and not work for the Sands-backed ballot measure. They would be paid $2,000 initially, then $2,500 three weeks later if they agreed to sign into the Tribe’s gaming portal then an additional $2,500 three weeks after that if they remained outside the state. Signing into the gaming portal, which uses GPS tracking software, would provide proof that they were indeed outside of Florida.
“If any of you find people working the other side petitioning that are from out of state let me know asap as I am only authorized to offer a super sweet deal to them ok,” read a text message sent by Donat to Circulator A and others. “I can’t explain but it’s irresistible money so let me know if you find someone from out of state working any petitions.”
The lawsuit contends the money was funneled through Cornerstone Solutions, a Palm Beach County-based consulting firm run by longtime Seminole consultant Rick Asnani. On Monday, POLITICO reported the firm’s involvement, including a review of non-compete agreements that petition gathering firms signed with Cornerstone. Cornerstone is also allegedly targeting petition gatherers working for a separate gaming measure backed by fantasy sports gaming companies FanDuel and DraftKings that, if approved by voters, would allow sports betting throughout the state, not just through the Seminole Tribe. The two ballot measures so far collectively have $60 million behind them.
The Seminole Tribe declined to comment on the lawsuit since it is not named as a defendant.
But Asnani, in a statement to POLITICO on Thursday, said that “anyone can sue for anything and this is nothing more than a nuisance lawsuit filed by a competitor designed to deflect blame for a lack of results. Our team members are trained to follow the rules.”
The Maitland office was run by Mark Jacoby, an Orlando-based veteran petition gatherer who was helping organize the effort. Jacoby in 2009 pleaded guilty to reporting an inaccurate address in California to meet that state’s requirement that you must live in the state to be a signature gatherer. The Maitland office was staffed by longtime Jacoby employees, including a woman identified as Kara Owens, who is also a named defendant in the case.
“While in the Maitland office, Circulator A overheard Defendant Owens remark that she has been working with Defendant Jacoby’s organization for seventeen years,” read the lawsuit.
Earlier this week, Tribe spokesperson Gary Bitner did not deny Jacoby’s involvement, but said the Seminoles did not hire him. He previously said Jacoby “is a vendor to a vendor.”
Jacoby, also a named defendant in the lawsuit, did not return requests for comment.
Jacoby is also helping orchestrate a “sham petition” drive, known as a plebiscite. The Tribe says it’s an “education” effort, but opponents allege it’s designed to confuse people into thinking they have signed one of the two formal petition drives, when in reality they have not. It is not tied to any specific ballot measure but asks for a signer’s name and address. The petition states it is “Sponsored by The Seminole Tribe of Florida.”
Circulator A, the Las Vegas Sands-linked private investigator, was paid $5 per signature collected on behalf of the Seminole’s unofficial petition drive in the Maitland office, which would be illegal if the Seminole-backed effort was an actual petition drive. In 2019, the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature passed a law requiring petition gatherers be paid by the hour, not per signature. Because the Seminoles' effort is not an actual petition drive, the law banning per-signature payments does not apply to them.
The Tribe “knew their sham petition serves no legitimate purpose because Defendants promised to, and in fact did, pay circulators of the sham petition on the basis of the number of signatures collected, an arrangement that is unlawful for a legitimate citizen initiative petition,” read the lawsuit.
