MIAMI — The night he won his seventh Super Bowl, Tom Brady partied maskless aboard the superyacht of his friend, South Florida billionaire real estate mogul Jeffrey Soffer.
Floating off the coast of Tampa on Feb. 7 , Brady celebrated at an after party with longtime friends and associates — and some new ones, too. One was Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls, a Palm Harbor Republican who approached the Super Bowl MVP to congratulate him on leading the home team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their first trophy since 2003.
It wasn’t the first time Sprowls had met Brady on Soffer’s 311-foot Madsummer, a state-of-the-art vessel roughly as long as a football field. Five months earlier, Soffer had hosted a fundraiser and dinner for Sprowls on the boat and introduced him to Brady and his wife, Gisele Bundchen.
Soffer used that opportunity to make a pitch. Details were offered behind closed doors, but the idea was simple: Pass legislation to allow Soffer to move a gambling permit from his Hallandale Beach-based Big Easy Casino to the sumptuous Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach, which his family has owned since 2005.
The effort to bring gaming to Miami Beach had been a decadelong “obsession” of Soffer’s, those who know him have said. But, because of Florida’s fraught history with gambling, the strong opposition from local politicians, and the supersized influence of the Seminole Tribe’s South Florida gaming presence, his efforts had failed.
Now thanks to a confluence of a pandemic-induced economic crisis, fresh allies, and new leadership in Tallahassee, Soffer, who declined to comment for this story, may have his best chance in a decade.
Soffer’s wine-and-dine campaign on the superyacht came with a chance to meet Brady, a megawatt star, as a sort of celebrity lubricant. Meanwhile, legislative backing of Soffer’s effort could deliver a gift to Donald Trump, whose struggling South Florida golf resort could also benefit from any new law that would give him access to a Florida gaming license.
Suddenly, the pot looks a lot sweeter to the key Tallahassee lawmakers Soffer needs to win over.
By all accounts Soffer, son of legendary Miami developer Don Soffer, has drawn their attention — as well the ire of influential South Florida civic leaders who say they will fight tooth-and-nail to stop him.
For two nights last September, Soffer invited Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Trilby Republican, to his megayacht for intimate fundraising dinners and a sunset cruise, according to sources familiar with the events and photos reviewed by the Miami Herald.
On Sept. 27, when Soffer hosted a fundraiser for Simpson, Brady was busy beating the Denver Broncos. But on Sept. 28, when Sprowls and his wife Shannon were Soffer’s featured guests, Soffer arranged for them to meet Brady and Bundchen, a source who was there told the Herald. Brady left before the other guests arrived. His agent did not respond to a request for comment.
The September fundraisers were organized by Soffer’s lobbyist, Michael Corcoran, who attended along with his family, members of his lobbying team and several of Corcoran’s clients, according to a source who was there and photos reviewed by the Herald. Corcoran did not respond to requests for comment. Corcoran’s brother, Richard, is the most recent past speaker of the Florida House and the current state education commissioner.
Guests were ferried to the Madsummer on a yacht that only looked small in comparison to the cruise-ship-sized megayacht. As they stepped off one boat and into the world of the superwealthy, guests were ushered up a grand staircase toward staff who took drink orders while insisting everyone remove their shoes to protect the deck from unsightly scuff marks, a source who was there said. Donors then roamed the vessel in their socks or slippers provided to them, sipping red wine and mingling with the politicians before delivering their checks.
Wealthy donors got face time with influential politicians and the sunset cruise of a lifetime. Campaigns made money. Soffer used the opportunity to push his own legislative agenda.
The Madsummer — now on the market for $272 million and available for charter for $1.4 million per week — was a glitzy meeting place. Location data transmitted by the yacht and provided to the Herald by the global ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic, as well as metadata from photos reviewed by the Herald, show the Madsummer was moored near Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base on the evening of Sept. 27, before it began the evening voyage for Simpson’s fundraiser.
It was a crucial time in the election season for Simpson and Sprowls. Each was working to retain the Republican majority in their legislative chambers and raising money was their top priority. And by September 2020, there was added incentive for legislators to reach a deal — new gaming revenues could help the state replenish some of the millions of revenue and thousands of jobs lost in the pandemic.
Soffer enhanced his pitch with political contributions. Since 2019, companies connected to Soffer have given $300,000 to Simpson’s Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign, $407,500 to the Florida Republican Party, and more than $135,000 to rising Republican legislators, state election records show.
As the legislative session was about to begin, Soffer also cut one of his biggest checks as a political donor: $100,000 through his Big Easy Casino to Friends of Ron DeSantis, the governor’s political committee. Since 2019, he has spent $1.1 million in political contributions, most of it going to Republican legislators but with some key Democrats also benefiting.
Now, with six weeks left of the annual legislative session, Florida’s leading lawmakers have joined with the governor in active discussions about a gambling deal, several sources close to the negotiations told the Herald. The governor has scheduled a meeting with parimutuel owners at the Capitol on Thursday morning, multiple sources said. And Simpson is drafting legislation expected out this week or next.
“As we consider a path forward and options for the state on gaming, we believe it is important to hear from representatives from the parimutuel industry,’’ DeSantis spokesperson Meredith Beatrice said. “It’s important they have a voice in the conversation.” She said the governor would not respond to questions about his meetings with Soffer and Brady.
“This time I think we have the three principal leaders who are deal makers that I think will listen to reforms that make sense that are good for the state of Florida,’’ said Brian Ballard, a longtime gaming lobbyist who represented Donald Trump in the past in his failed attempt to get a casino license in Doral. “But there’s still so many moving parts that any gaming bill is just the hardest thing to do in Tallahassee.”
Neither Simpson, Sprowls nor the governor would comment on Soffer’s political contributions. Simpson told the Herald he won’t discuss details of the gaming negotiations.
“Gaming negotiations are extremely complicated,’’ said Simpson spokesperson Katie Betta. “And while President Simpson believes the efforts are worthy, it is also important to be realistic about where we are. The president has been involved in these negotiations for years, and if they get to a place where he believes an agreement would benefit the state of Florida and have the support of his colleagues in the Legislature as well as the governor, he would be happy to discuss further details.”
Sprowls’ spokesperson, Jenna Sarkissian, said that Sprowls would not comment on his discussions with the governor or Soffer, but said he only stayed “five minutes” at the Madsummer Super Bowl after party. The Herald reviewed social media posts showing Brady on the Madsummer with the Super Bowl after-party.
“The speaker has said numerous times that gaming is a big and complicated issue that involves far more than any one part of the puzzle,’’ she said, adding he has said he “is open to the conversation, particularly because of its importance to the Senate president.”
Details on the gambling legislation are scarce.
But according to several sources with knowledge of the discussions, the elements on the table include: transferring a casino permit to Miami Beach for Soffer (and perhaps others) and a new gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Under the proposal, the tribe would bring online sports betting to Florida and would allow the state’s existing horse tracks and jai-alai frontons and slots casinos to license sports betting activities from them and to install video lottery terminals.
“Things are moving forward in terms of progress on the discussions, but we’re just not there yet,’’ said Republican state Sen. Travis Hutson of St. Augustine, who worked with Simpson last year to negotiate a gambling proposal that never got a hearing. “All those conversations have been going on for quite some time.”
But, Hutson added, “time is of the essence here,” and “if you don’t see anything in the next couple of weeks, we’re probably not doing anything at all.”
The proposed legislation, which would repeal the ban on transferring a casino permit from one property to another, could also benefit other properties in South Florida seeking a boost. Among them: Trump’s golf resort in Doral, which has been struggling financially thanks in part to the former president’s controversial statements and policies, and Genting, the Malaysian group also in financial trouble after it bought the Miami Herald’s former property on Biscayne Bay. Genting has been stymied in its goal of establishing a resort casino there.
Trump has long sought a casino in Doral. “If Miami doesn’t do casinos, that would be a terrible mistake,” Trump told the Herald shortly after buying the resort in 2013.
DeSantis and Trump are close allies, starting when the then-president endorsed him in the GOP primary for governor, but a source close to him says the former president is not involved in the current negotiations.
The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment, although Eric Trump has hinted there is interest, telling The Washington Post on Thursday that “many people consider Trump Doral to be unmatched from a gaming perspective.”
Soffer has also had an emerging relationship with the governor. DeSantis has hitched a ride on Soffer’s private jet on at least one occasion, saying at the time there was “no favor done.”
Simpson, Sprowls and DeSantis are pivotal to Soffer’s ability to realize his decadelong mission to make Miami-Dade County’s largest hotel the crown jewel of destination casinos.
Soffer’s quest began in 2005, when the Soffer family’s Turnberry Associates paid $325 million for the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. They then spent $1 billion gutting and renovating the 1954 historic hotel and retrofitting it to be receptive to hosting a resort casino.
In 2018, Jeff Soffer set the wheels in motion for a Florida gaming operation when he purchased the Mardi Gras Casino and Race Track in Hallandale Beach, increasing speculation that he would attempt to get the Legislature to allow him to transfer the greyhound track’s casino permit to the Fontainebleau.
That same year, Jeff Soffer’s sister and Turnberry partner, Jackie Soffer, backed a Miami Beach referendum that would allow her to develop an 800-room hotel on city land. But the city made one condition: The operator could not own a casino anywhere in the county. After the Soffer siblings publicly disputed whether Miami Beach should become a gambling mecca, they split their holdings and parted ways in 2019.
Soffer was not the only parimutuel owner hoping to influence the legislative session, however. In the 2020 election cycle, people and companies directly connected to the gaming industry contributed at least $3.8 million to Florida legislative causes and campaigns, according to records from the Florida Division of Elections. Among the top donors, in addition to Soffer: Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino mogul who died earlier this year, and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood.
Now, however, there may be a potential hitch in Soffer’s plan: In March, the federal government said it would be infusing $10 billion into state accounts, making the financial imperative to expand gaming seem less dire.
“It’s a lot harder when the feds just gave us billions of dollars,’’ said Rep. Evan Jenne, a Dania Beach Democrat and co-chair of the House Democratic Caucus, adding that crafting a deal on gaming legislation in Florida is one of the most complex pursuits in Tallahassee.
“I’ve watched so many capable legislators try it and fail,’’ he said. “The only thing that changes it is if the (former) president weighs in on it for some reason — which means he has a way to have it make him some money.”
Just like casino patrons, the path forward for Jeff Soffer involves a big gamble, and it won’t be easy.
For any deal to succeed, legislators must overcome several potential obstacles and find a way to link competing interests into a compatible arrangement.
The first challenge is to rewrite the law and attempt to make it constitutional. Florida statutes don’t allow the transfer of casino licenses to other properties and, in 2004, voters approved a constitutional amendment authorizing slot machines at parimutuel facilities in South Florida, but only after county voters approved a referendum. The slots permit held by Soffer at the Hallandale Beach facility, now named The Big Easy Casino, was approved by voters in Broward County, not Miami-Dade.
Another major obstacle is winning the support of the Seminole Tribe, which owns the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood and six other casinos, if the state expects to receive revenue payments. Under federal Indian Gaming law, the tribe must have exclusive access to something its competitors don’t have in order to pay the state a share of its revenue and the tribe argued that designated player games violated its exclusive access to blackjack.
The tribe stopped paying the state its $350 million in annual revenue sharing after former Gov. Rick Scott refused to crack down on parimutuels operating designated-player games, a hybrid between blackjack and poker, where the bank is supposed to revolve among the players. The tribe considered the game a violation of its revenue sharing agreement with the state.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed sports betting in Florida and other states. Now many legislators see sports betting as the exclusive product the tribe could have to resume revenue-sharing payments to the state while also allowing the parimutuels to keep their controversial card games.
Last year, Hutson and then state Rep. Mike LaRosa drafted a bill to introduce organized sports betting to Florida and bring in new revenue from the Seminole Tribe. They envisioned a system in which sports bets would be made at horse tracks, former dog tracks and jai-alai frontons across the state using a “geo-fencing” system in which the bets would go through servers run by the tribe but the transaction would take place on the parimutuel’s property.
But, as with many proposed gambling bills, it died of its own weight.
The proposed legislation must also overcome any local government opposition and, supporters say the plan will include a provision to preempt local officials in Miami Beach and other localities from opposing the transfer of an existing license to a new location.
On Wednesday, that prospect met strong opposition from the Miami Beach City Commission, which voted to hire an outside lawyer and enhance its lobbying team to fight the legislation.
Finally, the most daunting of the obstacles was approved by 71% of the voters in 2018. Amendment 3 to the Florida Constitution said that any gambling deal that creates a new casino in Florida “requires a vote by citizens initiative.’’
The popularity of the amendment, which passed with more votes than the governor received when he defeated Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum with 49.5% of the vote, is also an obstacle legislators must consider.
Hutson said this week that it will be easier to reach a agreement with the Seminole Tribe than to find a way to bring a new casino to Miami-Dade County.
“I would believe any type of casino expansion would violate the Constitution,’’ he said.
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(Miami Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.)
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