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Seminoles and the state of Florida 1, opponents of Florida’s sports betting compact.
The first of two cases filed against the historic compact signed between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the state allowing sports betting and other extended gambling operations was thrown out last night by a Florida judge, who said the opponents failed to demonstrate how the compact would cause them harm.
Two Florida-based casinos also known as pari-mutuels, the Magic City Casino in Miami-Dade County and the Bonita Springs Poker Room in the southern part of the state, filed the case in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in July.
“The pari-mutuels lack standing to sue the governor or the secretary because their actions are not fairly traceable to any alleged harm. In addition, the requested declaratory and injunctive relief would provide no legal or practical redress to the pari-mutuels’ injuries,” U.S. District Court Judge Allen Winsor wrote, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
When Will Sports Betting Begin In Florida?
According to the compact, sports betting was legalized in Florida as of Friday, Oct. 15. But Seminole officials last month said it would likely be November before sports betting would begin.
The pari-mutuels also filed suit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, which is home to the Department of Interior. This could also impact the timing of when bettors can actually begin placing sports wagers in the Sunshine State.
DOI was required to sign off on the compact because it involves tribal lands. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, did just that in August.
The D.C. case is still pending against the compact with a hearing set for next month.
Legal Issues Surround Compact
Opponents began arguing the compact was illegal before it was even signed into law.
The compact stipulates all sports bets in the state would be transmitted through servers located on tribal lands. This is known as a hub-and-spoke model. But opponents say that bets placed on couches in Jacksonville, Orlando, or even 50 feet outside the reservation boundary violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
IGRA specifies that gambling may only take place on “Indian lands.”
It is because of IGRA, and the location of the Department of Interior, that opponents filed the second case in D.C. courts. That hearing is set for Nov. 5.
There is also the question of a 2018 statewide referendum that stipulated the state and/or the governor could not expand gambling without the approval of voters.
Experts, however, are divided, as to whether any of these cases will stand.
Daniel Wallach, an attorney who specializes in gambling law, has said all year the compact is illegal. He took to Twitter last night and called the Florida ruling “a Pyrrhic victory.”
He remains confident the D.C. court will ultimately overturn the compact.
But Bob Jarvis, a gambling law expert at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, said the ruling by Winsor should not have surprised anyone.
“I said all along that this lawsuit was ‘DOA.'” he said in an email to Gaming Today this morning.
“I’m not surprised that Judge Winsor dismissed it. It was, in short, the wrong lawsuit brought by the wrong plaintiffs against the wrong defendants, and Judge Winsor quickly saw that by finding that the plaintiffs lacked standing and the relief they sought was improper. So well done, Judge Winsor!”
