US Supreme Court to Consider Florida Sports Betting Case on June 13

The final push to shut down the legal Florida sports betting operation currently underway will be made on June 13.

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a conference that day to consider whether to take up the petition filed by a Florida parimutuel asking it to consider and eventually shut down the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Hard Rock Bet app.

According to the Supreme Court calendar, a decision would be made on June 17 or 24.

If four of nine justices deem the case worthy, the entire court would take up the case—most likely in 2025. If not, West Flagler Associates will have seemingly exhausted its last option at the federal level.

The Supreme Court agrees to hear about 5% of petitions each year.

The best hope for West Flagler, whose previous owners ran a greyhound track before it was outlawed in Florida, appears to be an earlier suggestion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh that the case’s implications for the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act could rise to Supreme Court purview.

West Flagler Previously Denied on Florida Sports Betting in March

On March 21, the Supreme Court denied a West Flagler request to shut down Florida sports betting until a final decision was made.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida gained the right to offer state-wide mobile sports betting and craps, roulette, and retail sports betting at its six casinos through a 30-year compact signed in 2021. The operation lasted roughly a month before being shut down by a federal judge who deemed the so-called “hub-and-spoke” model used to offer mobile bets off tribal lands a “legal fiction.”

West Flagler continued to prevail in subsequent court rulings until a surprise reversal by a Circuit Court of Appeals panel allowed Hard Rock to relaunch late in 2023. Their machinations in the Florida Supreme Court appear done.