Fort Lauderdale, Florida— On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to an agreement that gave the Seminole Tribe sole control over online sports betting in Florida. This was a setback for those who were against the plan.
The petition from people who are against the compact was turned down by the country’s top court. The compact is expected to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars for both the tribe and the state.
The ruling was the latest bad news for West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., two Florida companies that run racetracks and poker clubs. The Florida Supreme Court said in March that the companies had filed the wrong kind of case to question the 2021 agreement between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis’s government.
“The most important obstacle to online sports betting in Florida has been removed,” said Daniel Wallach, a sports betting law expert and lawyer from South Florida who had filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to either take up the case or overturn it completely.
The companies say that the compact gives the tribe a monopoly on sports betting in the third-most populous state in the country. They also say that the U.S. Department of Interior made a mistake when it accepted the compact, even though it breaks the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which says that gambling can only happen on tribal lands.
The plaintiffs asked if that place of online sports bets, which can happen from anywhere in Florida, could be thought of as being on tribal land, since the only thing that is actually on tribal land are the computers that handle the betting services.
They said that DeSantis and the Legislature, which passed the compact, went beyond their authority when they let people bet on sports off of tribal lands.
In their case in state court, they said that the deal is an illegal way to get around a law that voters passed in 2018 to change the Florida Constitution. That law says that a citizens’ proposal is needed to allow casinos to open on land that is not owned by a tribe. The tribe has said that the amendment doesn’t change the fact that the Legislature is the only one who can decide where internet gambling starts.
Lawyers for DeSantis and the leaders of the legislature have said that sports betting is not the same as playing in a casino and is not against the law because of this.
The Seminole Tribe said Monday that from December of last year to May of this year, Florida has already received $357 million from the tribe’s online sports betting business. According to state economic forecasters, the money that tribes get from gaming could add up to $4.4 billion by the end of this decade.
The Seminole Tribe said in a statement that the Supreme Court’s ruling “means members of the Seminole Tribe and all Floridians can count on a bright future made possible by the Compact.”
Wallach said that Monday’s vote could lead other tribes to take the same steps to allow online gambling.
“This decision is good for tribes in other states because it gives them a clear plan that has been approved by the courts,” Wallach said. “Work should get tougher in other states,” I said.
Source: AP News