The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging the legality of online sports betting in Florida, upholding the Seminole Tribe's exclusive control over the practice within the state until 2051. West Flagler Associates had sought to overturn the existing arrangement, but the court's decision effectively ends their legal challenge.
The tribe’s monopoly over online sports betting will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars a year to both the Seminoles and the state, money Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have largely put toward environmental conservation efforts.
“The Seminole Tribe of Florida applauds today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to decline consideration of the case involving the Tribe’s Gaming Compact with the State of Florida,” Gary Bitner, spokesperson for the tribe, wrote the Times/Herald by email on Monday. “It means members of the Seminole Tribe and all Floridians can count on a bright future made possible by the Compact.”
Gambling companies West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. had challenged the state’s gambling agreement — the negotiated agreement — with the tribe on the grounds that it violated the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, arguing that the gambling must occur on tribal lands. While the servers and other electronic devices receiving the bets would be on tribal lands, the disputed 2021 agreement allows Floridians to place them from anywhere in the state.
“Thus, the Compact unambiguously authorizes the Tribe to offer online Sports Betting to persons located off Indian lands, and then ‘deems’ such gambling to be treated as if it occurred ‘exclusively’ on Indian lands,” states the firms’ Feb. 8 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The firms made this argument to a U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., who ruled in their favor on Nov. 22, 2021. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed that decision last summer, allowing the agreement to stand. The Supreme Court decision to not take the case means the appeal court’s ruling stands.