The Florida Supreme Court on Friday denied a request by two pari-mutuel companies to block online sports betting offered by the Seminole Tribe pending an extensive legal battle.
The Supreme Court, without explanation, has ruled that West Flagler Associates and Bonita Fort Myers Inc.’s 2021 gaming agreement between tribes and state requires an “immediate suspension of the sports betting provisions” of the law. The complaint was dismissed.
The agreement, known as the Compact, allows the tribe to offer online sports betting to people across the state.
However, pari-mutuel companies filed a petition with the Supreme Court in September, arguing that the sports betting portion of the agreement and accompanying law violate a 2018 constitutional amendment requiring voter approval of casino gambling. did.
With the lawsuit pending, the tribe relaunched its sports betting app on Nov. 7. Lawyers for West Flagler Associates and Bonita Fort Myers Corporation quickly asked the Supreme Court to block the sports betting portion of the law.
“This emergency situation was caused by the launch of the Seminole Tribe’s mobile gaming application without prior warning on November 7, 2023,” the attorneys wrote in the 15-page motion.
The Supreme Court denied the stay request Friday, but the decision did not resolve the underlying legal issues in the case.
A 2021 agreement signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. and approved by Congress would allow the Seminole Tribe to add craps and roulette to its Florida casinos and expand the Tribe to tribal land in Broward. The addition of three casinos was also approved. county. In return, the tribes agreed to pay the state at least $2.5 billion over the first five years and likely billions more over the life of the agreement.
The tribe briefly launched an app in 2021 to enable sports betting across the state, but the app was shut down amid a federal lawsuit filed by a pari-mutuel company. The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to block the deal in this case, which is separate from the Florida Supreme Court case.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, the tribe announced on November 1 that it would begin allowing sports betting at its casinos starting in December. On November 7th, it went even further and announced that it would also accept online sports betting from a limited number of gamblers.
It was now accessible, at least in part, to those who used the 2021 app or had points in the tribe’s loyalty program for casino gamblers, Unity by Hard Rock.
The legal battle focuses on part of the agreement that aims to allow gamblers to place mobile sports bets anywhere in the state, with bets processed on computer servers located on tribal property. The deal states that “bets made using mobile apps or other electronic devices shall be deemed to be made exclusively by the Tribe.”
Opponents argue that allowing people to place sports bets off tribal lands violates a 2018 constitutional amendment that requires voter approval of casino gambling.
West Flagler has three jai alai licenses, and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. does business in Southwest Florida as Bonita Springs Poker Room. They argue that tribes could be hurt financially if they were able to offer online sports betting throughout the state.
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