The Seminole Tribe in Florida has a monopoly on mobile sports betting due to a compact made with the state of Florida and blessed by the Department of the Interior. However, parimutuel company, West Flagler Associates, has taken their case to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow others to participate in the Sunshine State’s digital sports betting market.
In the latest development, the Supreme Court extended the DOI’s deadline to respond to the latest development in the case.
UPDATE: The DOI’s motion for a 30-day extension has been granted by SCOTUS. The new response deadline is April 12th. https://t.co/NUryFin8yQ
— Daniel Wallach (@WALLACHLEGAL) March 7, 2024
Legal Battle Continues
Parimutuel betting company, West Flagler Associates (WFA), has been battling the state of Florida and the Department of the Interior for several years to stop what they believe is an unfair monopoly on mobile sports betting by the Seminole Tribe. Lately, the tide has shifted markedly in favor of the Seminoles and their compact with Florida which will supply a minimum of $2.5 billion over the next five years.
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) oversees tribal gaming and the DOI Secretary, Deb Haaland, allowed the compact between the Seminoles and the state of Florida to pass. However, West Flagler Associates has challenged that decision in court citing the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that states all gambling must take place on tribal lands.
The sports bets are placed off tribal land but the Seminoles have argued that the servers that accept the bets are on tribal property which is the determining factor and the upper court agreed. However, WFA is not going down without a fight and has now appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the matter.
Counterargument
The lawyers representing WFA stated that the current pact “provides for gaming off Indian lands. The compact at issue here clearly provides for gaming off Indian lands.”
The petition argued that the compact was used “as a backdoor around state constitutional prohibitions against online sports gambling conducted off tribal lands” and created “a sports gambling monopoly” for the tribe.
Hamish Hume, an attorney with the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, wrote on behalf of WFA, “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’ affirmative answer is left undisturbed — as an end-run not just around state-law prohibitions on gaming off tribal lands, but also around Congress’ limitation of (the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act’s) federal imprimatur to gambling on tribal lands.”
“The whole point of the compact is to provide a hook for dodging Florida’s constitutional requirement of a popular referendum to approve off-reservation sports betting,” Hume wrote.
The SCOTUS has extended the deadline to April 12th for the DOI to respond to the complaint and it will likely be at least a few months before it decides whether or not it will hear the case.
Money Begins Flowing
As the legal battle ensues, the money from sports betting revenue is beginning to flow into Florida’s tax coffers. The Seminole Tribe has already transferred $120 million to the state of Florida per their compact agreement which is estimated to increase to almost $344 million by the end of the fiscal year on June 30th.
The projections are that the money will continue to rise each year and that Florida’s tax coffers will swell as much as $4.43 billion over the next six years because of the sports betting revenue generated by the Seminoles. At this point, both parties are making plenty of money but WFA believes commercial sportsbooks should be able to share in the profits.
But where should those profits go? Senate Bill 1638 recently passed unanimously in the Senate and it proposes that 96% of the sports betting proceeds should be earmarked towards environmental causes such as the preservation of state parks and wildlife across the state, as well as upgrading water quality.
