{"id":28775,"date":"2024-03-11T16:50:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T22:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/florida-rivals-ask-courts-to-stop-online-sports-gambling-off-tribal-lands\/"},"modified":"2024-03-11T22:50:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T22:50:15","slug":"florida-rivals-ask-courts-to-stop-online-sports-gambling-off-tribal-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/florida-rivals-ask-courts-to-stop-online-sports-gambling-off-tribal-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida rivals ask courts to stop online sports gambling off tribal lands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The guitar-shaped hotel is seen at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in 2019 in Hollywood, Florida. The state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida will be raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from online sports betting this decade, thanks to a compact between the tribe and Gov. Ron DeSantis that gave the tribe exclusive rights to run sports wagers as well as casino gambling on its reservations. (Brynn Anderson\/The Associated Press)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida will be raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from online sports betting this decade, thanks to a compact between the tribe and Gov. Ron DeSantis that gave the tribe exclusive rights to run sports wagers as well as casino gambling on its reservations.<\/p>\n

But are these online wagers<\/a> on the outcome of sporting events legally on tribal land, when really only the computer servers are located there, accepting bets made using mobile phones and computers from anywhere in Florida?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a question two of the tribe\u2019s gaming competitors are hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will take up soon and answer with a definitive \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decision by the nation\u2019s highest court would be of \u201cmassive importance\u201d for the future of online gaming across the U.S., since leaving in place an appellate ruling in the tribe\u2019s favor would set a precedent for other end-runs around state prohibitions against gaming off tribal lands, said the firms, West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corporation, which operate racetracks and poker rooms in Florida.<\/p>\n

The companies sued Deb Haaland, secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, which oversees tribal gambling.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court accepts a tiny percentage of such petitions each year.<\/p>\n

The two pari-mutuel firms say the compact signed by the governor and the tribe in 2021 gives the tribe a sports gambling monopoly and creates a \u201cbackdoor\u201d way out of the state\u2019s requirement, passed by voters in 2018 as an amendment to the Florida Constitution<\/a>, that a citizens initiative is needed to expand casino gambling outside tribal land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this artifice, the Compact transparently attempts to get around the Florida Constitution,\u201d the firms\u2019 attorneys said. \u201cThe whole point of the Compact is to provide a hook for dodging Florida\u2019s constitutional requirement of a popular referendum to approve off-reservation sports betting.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of money is at stake. The tribe launched its online sports betting operation late last year, and Florida\u2019s share of 2024 revenues is already more than $120 million. State economic forecasters predict the revenue sharing from tribal gaming could total $4.4 billion through the end of this decade.<\/p>\n

The pari-mutuel firms also sued DeSantis and leaders of the Florida Legislature, which authorized the compact, in a case pending before the Florida Supreme Court. The tribe argued the legislature has the authority to decide where online gambling is initiated and the amendment doesn\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2021 Compact is a historic agreement between the Tribe and State that settled years of disputes,\u201d the Seminole Tribe said in a court filing.<\/p>\n

The tribe now counts about 5,000 members, descended from the Native Americans who survived in the Florida Everglades, resisting federal efforts to remove them in the 19th century. The sovereign tribe operates seven casinos across Florida and owns the Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos business, with locations in 76 countries.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for DeSantis and the legislative leaders argue sports betting is different from casino gambling and therefore isn\u2019t prohibited by the amendment. They also note that rivals can get in on the action \u2013 and get paid a revenue share \u2013 by allowing their customers to make online bets from their properties to the tribe\u2019s servers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an important source of revenue for both the Seminole Tribe and the State \u2013 and even the Tribe\u2019s competitors \u2013 the 2021 compact serves the public interest and has been upheld in federal court,\u201d attorneys for DeSantis and the legislative leaders told the state justices.<\/p>\n

The pari-mutuel firms\u2019 latest petition before the U.S. Supreme Court was filed Feb. 8, after an appellate panel reversed a federal district court decision in their favor. If the justices don\u2019t weigh in, Florida\u2019s example could inspire other states to allow tribes to expand online gaming, Daniel Wallach, a South Florida attorney and sports betting law expert said in a high court brief.<\/p>\n

Miami resident Jason Molina started sports betting recently after he learned about it from a friend. He says he loves it and has placed bets on everything from Russian slap fighting to Korean pingpong matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something new to my world,\u201d Molina said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a way to have more on the game and be more enthusiastic about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DeSantis gave the tribe exclusive rights to wagers on its reservations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,1253,346,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-gambling","tag-sports","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28775"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}