In the ongoing legal battle for online sports betting in Florida, US Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar, has motioned for an extension of the government’s response in the US Supreme Court case, West Flagler Associated, et al vs. Debra Haaland, et al.
Let’s go a little further into this legal battle and analyze how it may impact the online sportsbooks industry.
Legal Drama
As of this writing, the Seminole Tribe has a monopoly on mobile sports betting due to a compact it signed with the state of Florida and endorsed by the Secretary of the Interior, Debra Haaland. West Flagler Associates (WFA), a parimutuel betting company, has vociferously and relentlessly objected to the Seminoles’ sports betting exclusivity.
WFA has been filing motions at the state and federal level to stop mobile sports betting in the Sunshine State with the end-game of it being allowed to participate in Florida’s online gaming industry. The state has fought this cause of action, citing its compact with the Seminoles, and the Secretary of the Interior has agreed with the tribal monopoly.
This has resulted in a legal heavyweight battle with WFA winning the early rounds, which prompted a lower court to put a halt to the Seminoles’ launch of online sports betting, which lasted barely a month in December 2021.
However, a higher court reversed that decision, and the Seminole Tribe relaunched mobile sports betting in November 2023, which caused another firestorm of legal wrangling from the plaintiff, West Flagler Associates, which has petitioned both the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the case.
Second Extension
The Department of Justice, on behalf of the US Department of the Interior, was given until February 12, 2024, to respond to the plaintiff’s action but then asked for an extension to April 12th, which the SCOTUS allowed. The government then asked for a second extension to May 12th without objections from the WFA’s counsel and the request has been granted.
According to US Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar, the second “extension is necessary because the attorneys with principal responsibility for final preparation of the government’s response have been heavily engaged with the press of other matters before the court.”
In federal court, WFA is arguing that the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, does not have the authority to approve the compact agreed upon between the state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe.
The prospects of WFA getting its case heard by the SCOTUS are not good as the august body hears only 100 to 150 of the roughly 7000 cases that come before it. Nevertheless, the fact that the Seminoles are accepting wagers emanating from outside their tribal grounds is a bone of contention. Although its computer server is on their land, the vast majority of digital sports bets come from non-tribal locations throughout the state.
West Flagler Associates is currently putting their legal eggs in the SCOTUS basket before vigorously pursuing the issue at the state level if all else fails. In the plaintiff’s supplemental brief to the SCOTUS, they wrote, “..because there are currently no pending proceedings in Florida state courts regarding the legality of the Compact, there is no risk that the Petition will be mooted by proceedings in Florida state courts.”
