Florida tribal gaming compact row escalates following court ruling
Governor De Santis mulls legal intervention as Seminole Tribe confirms appeal against US District Court nullification of 30-year compact
The debate over Florida sports betting looks set to deepen after Sunshine State officials and the Seminole Tribe readied appeals against a US court ruling nullifying its 30-year tribal compact.
On Monday, US District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich ordered the “vacation” of the highly controversial compact signed by the state and the tribe in August on the grounds it violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
It followed a lawsuit launched by two Florida-based parimutuel operators who challenged the compacts legality, citing noncompliance with IGRA, the Wire Act and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIEGA).
In the wake of the ruling, a spokesperson for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis all but admitted the state was considering a potential appeal against the court decision.
“We are reviewing the court’s perplexing ruling, which certainly contains appealable issues,” DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw said.
“Because neither the Seminole Tribe nor the state of Florida are parties to the case, it is unclear what, if any, immediate impact the ruling has in Florida. We look forward to working with the tribe to ensure the future success of the compact,” Pushaw added.
A separate appeal by the US Department of the Interior has also been mooted but not confirmed.
Seminole Gaming subsidiary Hard Rock Digital’s Florida-based online sportsbook, which has been in operation for the last three weeks, is still currently taking bets from Floridians, despite the court ruling all but rendering the practice illegal.
Indeed, the Seminole Tribe has pre-emptively launched its own appeal against the ruling, with tribal council chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr filing an affidavit suggesting the tribe has already expended “considerable” resources in preparing for sports betting operations.
These resources include more than 65 additional hires at the Hard Rock Digital business, the signing of contracts with more than 50 external entities as well as a net spend of $25m.
“The Tribe’s online sports betting authorized by the compact is now in operation and is generating millions in revenue per week,” Osceola Jr wrote.
“The Tribe is using these funds to pay back the development costs for its online sportsbook, make revenue sharing payments to the state and fund important tribal programs.
“The Tribe would be irreparably injured if it is required to cease online sports betting pending the outcome of an appeal.
“The Tribe would immediately lose the millions in online sports betting revenues the Tribe is generating. As a result, many of these jobs and outsourced position would be lost.
“In addition, if the Tribe is not permitted to operate under the 2021 Compact during an appeal, then the State would lose tens of millions per month in revenue sharing payments from the Tribe,” Osceola added.
The Seminole appeal, together with any potential appeal by the state or DOI must first pass through the Florida appeals court process, and in the event that this upholds Judge Friedrich’s ruling, up to the Florida Supreme Court, the highest court in the Sunshine State.
In her opinion, US District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich outlined two other potential avenues for sports betting to continue in Florida.
The first would involve the agreement of a new tribal gaming compact between the state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe which does not potentially violate IGRA by limiting sports betting to IGRA covered lands.
The second avenue, Friedrich explained would involve the implementation of a “citizens initiative” to allow Florida sports betting via inclusion of legislation enabling the practice on the November 2022 ballot.
There are currently several such initiatives vying for support in Florida, backed by a variety of operators including DraftKings, FanDuel and land-based operator Las Vegas Sands.
Florida Education Champions (FEC), the political action committee organisation backed by DraftKings and FanDuel, has been extremely active in soliciting for petition signatures to force inclusion of enabling legislation on the November 2022 ballot.
In November, the group launched a 30-second ad championing the widening of sports betting laws to benefit Floridians.
Speaking about the court ruling FEC spokesperson Christina Johnson called on residents to sign its petition. “Our effort was always mutually exclusive from the compact,” she explained.
“Florida Education Champions’ focus remains in securing the nearly 900,000 valid petitions to make the November 2022 ballot.
“Now is the time for all entities to come together so we may provide a competitive legal sports betting market for Floridians, while generating the expected hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues for the Florida Educational Enhancement Trust Fund,” Johnson added.
According to reports in local media, the FEC initiative has garnered more than 66,000 signatures, while the Las Vegas Sands backed initiative, Florida Voters In Charge, has just over 90,000.
In order to force inclusion on the ballot, both must obtain more than 891,589 signatures by January 2022.