{"id":310749,"date":"2024-02-14T11:49:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T17:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=310749"},"modified":"2024-02-14T12:09:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T18:09:49","slug":"scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"US Supreme Court Asked to Torpedo Seminoles Sports Betting Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Florida cardrooms have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to nullify the $2.5 billion gaming compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe. The deal handed the latter a monopoly on statewide mobile sports betting. Should SCOTUS take the case, its decision could shape the future of online sports betting in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"Florida
The Seminole Tribe of Florida owns the Hard Rock casino brand, above. The tribe relaunched its mobile sports betting app in November following an affirmative ruling by a federal appellate court. Two Florida cardrooms want the highest court in the land to review that decision. (Image: Seminole Hard Rock Tampa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The operators, West Flagler Associates, and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., contend the 2021 compact violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which prohibits off-reservation tribal gaming.<\/p>\n

The State of Florida has taken a broad reading of this statute. It argues that all mobile betting transactions occur on Seminole land because that\u2019s where the Tribe\u2019s internet servers are based.<\/p>\n

DOI \u2018Got It Wrong\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose Bureau of Indian Affairs must approve or deny state gaming compacts, allowed the deal to be approved under the provisions of IGRA in August 2021 \u2013 wrongly, according to the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the card clubs wrote in their petition that there was nothing in federal law \u201cthat provides for gaming off Indian lands,\u201d which the compact \u201cclearly\u201d did.<\/p>\n

Instead, they claim, the point of the compact was to \u201cprovide a hook for dodging Florida\u2019s constitutional requirement of a popular referendum to approve off-reservation sports betting.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since voters approved that constitutional amendment in 2018, matters of casino gaming expansion must be put to a public referendum for approval, which the compact wasn\u2019t. That amendment was, ironically, backed by the Seminoles at the time.<\/p>\n

\n

Florida argues that sports betting isn’t a casino game, or at least, that the list of the \u201ccasino games\u201d available in the state was \u201cfixed\u201d at the time and didn’t include sports betting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue this line of reasoning allows Florida to \u201chave its cake and eat it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

They want SCOTUS to review a federal appellate court\u2019s decision<\/a> upholding the compact after it was initially declared null and void<\/a> in the lower court.<\/p>\n

Potential Repercussions <\/strong><\/h2>\n

If the Supreme Court doesn’t take the case, it could have huge ramifications for online sports betting in other states where tribal mobile monopolies may be a viable option. These include California, where a future statewide mobile market would quickly become one of the biggest in the world.<\/p>\n

This question is exceptionally important not just for the people of Florida, but for the nationwide precedent it will set for other state-tribal compacts if the Court of Appeals\u2019 affirmative answer is left undisturbed \u2014 as an end-run not just around state-law prohibitions on gaming off tribal lands, but also around Congress\u2019 limitation of IGRA\u2019s federal imprimatur to gambling on tribal lands,\u201d<\/strong> lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In October 2023, SCOTUS declined to grant the plaintiffs\u2019 request for a long-term stay on the appellate court ruling, leaving the Seminoles free to relaunch their sports betting app, which the Tribe did<\/a> in November 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Florida cardrooms have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to nullify the $2.5 billion gaming compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe. The deal handed the latter a monopoly on statewide mobile sports betting. Should SCOTUS take the case, its decision could shape the future of online sports betting in the U.S. The operators, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":298094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,86436,1074,18456],"tags":[88718,86324,83129,89879,87808],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSCOTUS Asked to Torpedo Seminole Sports Betting Deal in Florida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Florida-Seminole sports betting deal could be reviewed by US Supreme Court as card rooms petition for a review of compact.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SCOTUS Asked to Torpedo Seminole Sports Betting Deal in Florida\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Florida-Seminole sports betting deal could be reviewed by US Supreme Court as card rooms petition for a review of compact.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-14T17:49:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-14T18:09:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/seminole.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/\",\"name\":\"SCOTUS Asked to Torpedo Seminole Sports Betting Deal in Florida\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/seminole.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-14T17:49:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-14T18:09:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Florida-Seminole sports betting deal could be reviewed by US Supreme Court as card rooms petition for a review of compact.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scotus-asked-to-torpedo-seminole-sports-betting-deal-in-florida\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/seminole.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/seminole.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":666,\"caption\":\"The Seminole Tribe of Florida owns the Hard Rock casino brand, above. 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