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Federal Judge Throws Out Florida-Seminole Gaming Compact
By Jeff Osienya Nov 28, 2021 LegalityFederal judge rules against the tribal-state gaming compact that Florida’s Gov. DeSantis penned with the Seminole Tribe earlier in the year. The tribes have been ordered to halt operations but have filed a motion to stay.Last Monday, a federal district court judge in Washington DC ruled that the 30-year tribal-state compact between the Seminole Tribe and Florida is in violation of the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) of 1988.
The Seminole Tribe and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis inked a gaming compact that gave the tribal nation a monopoly on sports betting, which the state governor signed into law in May after resounding legislative approval. But then, ever since the gaming compact was ratified, there has been an outcry against it from different corners of the local gaming sector. The Miami Beach mayor even tried to urge the US Department of the Interior to reject the compact to no avail. Different industry stakeholders, including a pari-mutuel duo (Magic City Casino and Bonita Springs Poker Room owners), went to court to fight it.
In the agreement between the Seminoles and the state, sports bettors were allowed to enjoy placing wagers via mobile devices on any location within state lines. However, the catch here was that the sports wagers are processed via computer servers that are sitting on the Seminal Tribe’s property. So, on top of claiming that the compact violated the IGRA, the pari-mutuel duo challenged the legality of whether remote sports betting via servers on tribal property can be considered wagering on tribal land.
Besides the pari-mutuel duo, a group of plaintiffs in the suit, including Miami-based businessmen Norman Braman and Armando Codina and the ‘No Casinos’ group, also filed separate lawsuits. Part of the suits were against Deb Haaland, the US Secretary of the Interior, claiming that the tribal-state gaming expansion agreement was improperly sanctioned. Judge Dabney L. Friedrich sided with the plaintiffs and threw out the compact, effectively invalidating it. As a result, sports betting has been halted indefinitely in the Sunshine State.
Part of the ruling read:
Quote“This Court cannot accept that fiction. When a federal statute authorizes an activity only at specific locations, parties may not evade that limitation by ‘deeming’ their activity to occur where it, as a factual matter, does not.”
As part of the ruling, Judge Friedrich ordered the Sunshine State to re-establish the previous tribal-state gaming compact that came into effect over a decade ago in 2010. Additionally, the federal judge recommended that the Seminole Tribe and Gov. DeSantis work on a brand-new gaming compact that will only permit online betting solely on tribal reservation lands. The judge also gave the state an alternative to allow state-wide sports betting via a citizens’ initiative on the ballot.
The Seminal Tribe Had Already Launched Sports Betting in Florida
Wagering on sporting activities had already been launched by the Seminal Tribal Nation alongside the Hard Rock Casino on November 1st. Furthermore, the Seminoles were also preparing to transform their Broward and Hillsborough casinos into fully-fledged gambling venues. However, with the judge’s ruling, these plans have hit a wall at the moment.
The three-decade tribal-state gaming compact also dictated that the Seminole Tribe pay the Sunshine State at least $2.5 billion through the first five years of launching a regulated sports wagering market. This was in exchange for sports betting exclusivity in Florida, along with an option to introduce craps and roulette in their tribal casino operations.
Because of how well things seemed to have been going for the initially okayed compact, state legislators had even started mauling over a $25 million gambling regulatory body for better oversight of the expanded gaming sector.
When asked about the ruling on Tuesday morning while in Broward County, Gov. DeSantis talked of appealing the decision in a briefing with a local media house. He said:
Quote“We also knew when you do hub and spoke; it was an unsettled legal issue. We structured the compact, so the compact was preserved for the casinos and other stuff. So, we’re going to be getting revenue. Obviously, we’ll be getting less revenue from sports betting if we are not able to do hub and spoke. But I would imagine that’s going to be appealed.”
The Seminoles have filed a motion for a stay, citing ‘irreparable harm’ to the sovereignty and economic interest of the Tribal Nation if the motion is rejected. According to court documents, the tribe has already made two revenue-sharing payments to the state, worth $37.5 million, and already spent over $25 million to develop its online sportsbook. The Seminoles argue that these and all other preparations will go down the drain should their online sportsbook operations stop. After Fredrich issues her ruling on the motion, the Seminoles can then launch their appeal process.
Meanwhile, sports betting juggernauts DraftKings and FanDuel have already started a petition to get Floridians to give sports betting the green light on the ballot in 2022. Moreover, the state legislators can also work on new laws in next year’s legislative sessions. Either way, with all that’s going on, it appears that sports fans in the Sunshine State may start legally betting on sports in 2023.
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