Florida: Chair of gambling board turned to gaming lobbyist for job recommendation

John MacIver, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to chair the new five-member commission to regulate gambling in Florida, is one of 14 lawyers whose names were forwarded to the governor last week to choose from as he fills four vacancies on the state appellate court.

MacIver’s application included recommendations from 10 people, one of whom stands out: Nick Iarossi, a Tallahassee lobbyist close to the governor who is also one of the state’s top gambling lobbyists. He is chief lobbyst for bestbet Jacksonville and is the Florida lobbyist for Las Vegas Sands, the mega gambling company that sought to land a casino in Jacksonville.

Bestbet previously ran the Jacksonville greyhound track and now operates poker rooms and simulcast wagering in Jacksonville, Orange Park and St. Augustine. Las Vegas Sands spent $70 million over the last year on a petition drive to put a constitutional amendment on the November 2022 ballot to ask voters to bring Las Vegas-style casinos to North Florida. MacIver’s wife, Abigail MacIver, worked with Iarossi on the petition drive along with her partners in the political consulting firm Canopy Partners. The petition drive fell short of obtaining the 900,000 signatures needed by the Feb. 1 deadline and Sands dropped the effort. Iarossi said in an interview Monday that he cannot lobby the Gaming Control Commission and has no second thoughts about recommending MacIver to the judicial post. Sands “is not pursuing anything in Florida,” he said, and “there are no plans to get on the next ballot.” Iarossi said he agreed to recommend MacIver because he had “known him for 20 years.”

MacIver also said he turned to Iarossi because of their long relationship. From 2002-2008, MacIver served as a legislative aide to current Republican Congressman Bill Posey, back when Posey was a state senator from Rockledge and Iarossi was beginning his governmental career. The 5th DCA is one of six appellate court districts in Florida. Based in Daytona Beach, it handles cases from the district courts in five north and central Florida circuit courts. MacIver, who from 2014-2019 served as deputy general counsel to DeSantis and former Gov. Rick Scott, currently makes a salary of $143,314 as chair of the Gaming Control Commission, a post he has was appointed to in May. If appointed to the court, his salary as a DCA judge would be $202,440. Of the 14 finalists sent to the governor from the 5th DCA Judicial Nominating Commission, only MacIver was recommended by Iarossi, a review of their applications shows. “It’s a good opportunity that would fit my skill set,’’ MacIver said Monday. He wouldn’t say whether he had been recruited to apply for the job. “I don’t want to speak for someone else,’’ he said. In 2019, MacIver was appointed by DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet to be the chief judge of the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings.

In that role, he drew criticism for disciplining a 20-year judge, John Van Laningham, for “insubordination and misconduct.” When MacIver took over as chief judge, he began reviewing judges’ orders and making comments about them before they were rendered. Van Laningham criticized MacIver for making what are known as improper “ex parte communications” when reviewing an order in a case about a South Florida horse track. Van Laningham appealed the suspension. MacIver served nearly a year as chief judge before the state Senate refused to confirm him to the post, citing his lack of experience in the courtroom. MacIver was then hired by Chief Financial Office Jimmy Patronis to be general counsel for the Florida Department of Financial Services until he was appointed by DeSantis to replace Julie I. Brown, the governor’s secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, as chair of the Gaming Control Commission. Brown was originally appointed by DeSantis to chair the new commission, but stepped aside as chair in May, and remained on the commission for reasons that were not announced. John Lockwood, a Tallahassee attorney who represents gambling interests and has appeared before the Gaming Control Commission, said he was not surprised that MacIver would turn to Iarossi for a recommendation but, he said, the governor already knows what to expect with him. “They know him in the governor’s office so he really doesn’t even need any references,’’ Lockwood said. “It doesn’t cause me any concern.”