Floridian Gambling Initiative Supporters Spent Double in November

Two important Floridian organizations have spent more than $20 million combined in November, in a new attempt to collect signatures that would help them insert a series of gambling initiatives onto the state’s 2022 ballot. The pair have doubled down on their stakes, spending over $10 million each while promoting their petitions, raising awareness on the topic, and gathering signatures.

Florida Voters in Charge and Florida Education Champions Went All In in November

Florida Voters in Charge is one of the two organizations trying to convince voters to allow a North Florida casino to be built. The organization has the support of the Las Vegas Sands, a popular casino and resort company in Nevada. The Florida Voters in Charge committee has spent $11.4 million last November, which is just about all the money it had left from its previous $5.5 million stakes in September.

Florida Education Champions is the second group that has spent $10.5 million while trying to push its gambling initiative petitions to Floridians. The group has the support of two large national fantasy sports platforms, and it is seeking voter permission to make sports gambling available to all punters.

To date, the two organizations have spent $54 million on their impressive efforts to gather signatures. However, they both still have a long way to go until they reach half the signatures needed to qualify for the 2022 Floridian ballot. The ballot requires 891,589 verified signatures for either of the initiatives to qualify. At the moment, Florida Voters in Charge has gathered 246,999 signatures after spending $27.4 million on petitions. Florida Education Champions has convinced 172,000 verified voters to sign off their petition after spending around $26.8 million on its efforts.

Efforts to Push the Two Petitions Continue

However, representatives of both groups claim to have gathered a larger number of signatures that have not yet been subject to the state and county verification procedures. Accordingly, these signatures are expected to be officially counted by the Secretary of State in the near future and be added to the existing signatures.

In order to reach their goals, both petitions need to gather sufficient verified signatures by February 2022, while the petitions need to be turned in by December 31^st. With the end of the year coming close to an end, both organizations are determined to keep backing up their initiatives with more funds.

Both of these gambling initiatives are being strongly opposed by the Seminole Tribe and its political committee called Standing Up for Florida. The group has spent $11 million on a series of TV ads in an attempt to convince Floridian voters not to sign the two petitions. The Seminole Tribe has also invested $10 million into its committee in November, bringing the total stake to about $20 million.