the lawsuit they originally filed last month<\/a> in a Florida federal court. That seeks to keep Gov. Ron DeSantis and Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Julie Imanuel Brown from implementing the newly approved compact.<\/p>\nThe initial lawsuit sought to keep Florida officials from working with the Seminoles to get federal approval on the compact. In addition, they also still seek the removal of all off-reservation sports betting elements.<\/p>\n
Besides statewide mobile betting, the compact also includes a \u201chub-and-spoke\u201d plan to involve pari-mutuel operators, like the plaintiffs, by allowing them to offer retail betting kiosks at their facilities.<\/p>\n
Magic City operates a jai-alai fronton and Bonita Springs offers both jai-alai and racing simulcasting.<\/p>\n
After the compact was signed by both sides, Magic City said it received a letter from Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen asking if it would be interested in being a part of the sports betting network. As part of the partnership, the pari-mutuels would get 60 percent of the net win its kiosks generate. But that 60-40 split would be determined after the Seminoles already took out a portion for its expenses.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs contend that unless they agree to join as partners, they risk losing customers who bet on races and jai-alai as well as play other games at their venues. Further, they contend that tribal officials have not been willing to work with them to determine how they can accept on-site cash wagers for sportsbooks. Cash betting allows bettors to bet anonymously, but for now, cash sports betting would only be available through the tribal casinos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese contracts will be uneconomical, but Southwest Pari-mutuels will have no choice but to enter them to avoid losing further business to other pari-mutuels, in addition to the business that they already will lose to the Tribe\u2019s online sports betting operation,\u201d<\/strong> the Florida lawsuit states.<\/p>\nThe plaintiffs aren\u2019t the only ones not sold on the pari-mutuel partnerships. In the decision letter, Newland said federal officials had concerns about the pari-mutuels involvement as well.<\/p>\n
With the suit amended as of Tuesday, Jared Williams, the deputy communications director for DeSantis, told Casino.org<\/em> on Wednesday that the administration will have 14 days from then to file its response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seminole Gaming officials continue to focus on the upcoming launch of statewide sports betting in Florida, a spokesperson told Casino.org Wednesday. That’s even as two other gaming companies have filed their second federal suit seeking to halt the plan. On Monday, the Magic City Casino and the Bonita Springs Poker Room filed the second suit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":183289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61,1074,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Seminoles, Florida Moving Sports Betting Forward Despite New Lawsuit<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n