Two pari-mutuel companies have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a 2021 deal giving the Seminole Tribe control over sports betting in Florida, stating that the case holds “massive importance for the future of online gaming across the country.”
Companies, West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., are seeking a Supreme Court review of an appellate court decision that upheld the deal.
The decision comes just weeks after the Seminole Tribe made a first payment of almost $58 million to the State of Florida as part of the agreement that gave them the green light to launch legal mobile sports betting in the Sunshine late last year.
As a result of the agreement between the Seminole Tribe and the State of Florida, the Seminoles enjoy a virtual monopoly in mobile sports betting across the state, with the deal stating that wagers made “using a mobile app or other electronic device shall be deemed to be exclusively conducted by the tribe.”
Industry experts predict it will make the tribe billions over the coming years.
Seminoles Positioned to Build Sports Betting Giant
Now poised to build one of the largest sports betting organizations in the country, the Seminole Tribe launched a mobile betting app under the Hard Rock Bet brand last November and followed up by opening Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa and three casinos in South Florida in December.
The agreement between Florida and the Seminole Tribe was approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the federal agency that oversees tribal gambling. But plaintiffs West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. have challenged the decision of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, asserting that the deal violates the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which limits gambling to tribal lands.
A federal district judge upheld the agreement in 2021 before being overruled by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. However, with the full appellate court refusing to consider the ruling of the panel, West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. have elected to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Petition Calls Out Feds
In addition to concerns over violations of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the companies have also argued that the deal violates state law requiring voter approval of further expansion of gambling and sports betting.
The Supreme Court petition filed last week argues that Haaland’s decision to approve the deal is not supported by law and regulation since “the compact at issue here clearly provides for gaming off Indian lands.”
The petition also states that the mobile sports betting component of the deal acts as a “backdoor around state constitutional prohibitions against online sports gambling conducted off tribal lands”.
The petition states further: “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.”
DeSantis Backing Deal
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spearheaded the negotiations with the Seminole Tribe. He has been actively engaged in defending the agreement against a lawsuit brought to the Florida Supreme Court by the same companies in September 2023.
It contends that such a deal requires voter approval under a 2018 constitutional amendment.
Under the terms of the 30-year agreement, the Seminole Tribe agreed to pay Florida approximately $20 billion, including $2.5 billion over the first five years of the compact.
The deal also authorizes the Seminoles to offer craps and roulette at retail casinos, to build three casinos on tribal property in Broward County. It also allows pari-mutuels to contract with the Seminole Tribe and share revenue from sports betting.