-
Casinos for you
DOI Urges Appeals Court to Reinstate Florida-Seminoles Betting Compact
By Jeff Osienya Aug 24, 2022 LegalityThe White House has come to the defense of the Florida-Seminoles expanded gaming compact rejected late last year by a D.C. District Judge. The agreement would give the Seminole tribe exclusivity over mobile sports betting in the Sunshine State.Through the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), the Joe Biden administration is urging a federal appeals court to restore a compact that gave the Seminoles Tribal Nation exclusivity over sports betting across Florida. This move comes nearly nine months after Washington DC District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled against the agreement in November 2021. Judge Friedrich termed the compact an act of violation of the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) of 1988, halting the journey towards mobile and in-person sports betting operations in Florida.
Under the 30-year agreement between the Seminole tribe and Florida, bettors would be allowed place bets in person and through their smartphones anywhere within Florida. In the tribal-state compact, mobile wagering in any location in the Sunshine State constituted sports betting in tribal land, provided the wagering was processed through the computer servers on tribal property.
On Wednesday last week, a brief filed by the DOI defended the decision made by the Biden administration to let the deal go into effect. In the three-decade tribal-state compact okayed in April 2021 by Governor Ron DeSantis, the Seminole s would pay the state $2.5 billion within the first five years for sole control of the sports betting arena. In addition, the tribe was also allowed to add craps and roulette to their casinos.
Before Friedrich’s decision to halt the sports betting compact between October 2021 to February 2022, the state of Florida received $187.5 million from the Seminole tribe. However, the Seminoles have since stopped the payments in protest of the court’s veto.
Objections to the Florida Tribal-State Compact
The woes of the tribal-state compact started when the owners of Bonita Springs Poker Room and Magic City Casino filed a lawsuit against the agreement in August 2021. They argued that the agreement violated federal Indian gaming laws, which require Class III gaming to operate within a tribe’s sovereign land. Therefore, if the Seminole compact was effected, it would adversely affect their businesses. However, Seminole argued that since the online sports betting servers were on their property, the agreement would not breach the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
Judge Friedrich described that model of sports wagering as ‘fiction,’ maintaining the agreement violated Indian gaming laws. Additionally, the judge found that Deb Haaland, the Interior Secretary, had erred when she allowed the deal to go through last year in November.
In response to Judge Friedrich’s argument, lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice who represent Halland stated:
Quote“The secretary has no duty — nor even any authority — to disapprove a compact that validly authorizes gaming on Indian lands simply because the compact also contemplates that the state will enact legislation permitting persons outside Indian lands to participate in that gaming. The legality of any non-Indian land activities discussed in a compact is instead a matter of state law. If the courts ultimately decide that those activities are not authorized by state law, then those activities will not be permitted, regardless of what the compact contemplates.”
Daniel Wallach, an attorney specializing in gambling-related issues on Thursday last week, spoke to The News Service of Florida and his sentiments about the government were:
Quote“They’re making factual assertions about the compact that are belied by the plain language of the compact. It’s crystal clear that the compact authorizes online sports betting, and that activity is what constitutes a violation of IGRA.”
Seminole Tribe Arguments
In a separate brief submitted late last Wednesday by Seminoles’ legal representatives, they highlighted that Judge Friedrich made a mistake by not allowing the tribe to challenge the parimutuels legal challenge. The Seminole tribe is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that tribes have sovereign immunity that protects them from lawsuits. Additionally, the tribe lawyers also emphasized that Seminole are interested in ensuring the original agreement is preserved. The Seminoles’ attorneys released a statement saying in part:
Quote“[The tribe] has a broad and particular interest in maintaining the 2021 compact, which is critical to the resolution of continuing discord between the tribe and parimutuel facilities, and to healing the long-standing rift between the tribe and the state.”
A brief sent out by the White House last Wednesday also emphasized that Deb Haaland’s scrutiny of the agreement was limited to activities allowed to take place within the Seminoles’ tribe lands. Moreover, in a brief filed to defend Halland’s actions last year, her lawyers maintained that:
Quote“Provisions in the compact reflect a permissible hybrid approach wherein gaming activity that occurs off of the tribe’s Indian lands is authorized under state law, and gaming activity that occurs on Indian lands is authorized by IGRA pursuant to the compact.”
Appeal Date Set for November
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia will handle the appeal. The court set a November 14 deadline, where all parties involved should have filed the response briefs. However, dates for oral arguments are yet to be set.
You might also like