Florida Supreme Court Expected To Rule On Seminole Sports BettingPlaintiffs Ask To Halt Mobile Wagering |
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The Seminole Tribe of Florida may have recently relaunched statewide mobile sports betting, but the legal fight on the issue continues. The longtime plaintiffs in the legal wrangling, the owners of the Magic City Casino and Bonita Springs Poker Room (known as West Flagler Associates), have asked the state supreme court to halt the tribe’s online sports betting operation.
The group also filed a final brief for the court on Tuesday, asking the court to nullify the tribe’s agreement with the state that gave the Seminoles a monopoly on mobile sports betting in the state. A ruling from the court is now expected at any time, according to Florida media reports.
In the latest filing with the state supreme court, West Flagler hammers home the point that voters approved a moratorium on expanded gaming in a 2018 statewide election. Amendment 3 only allows for the voters to grant the authority to expand gaming in the state, attorneys argue.
“The only necessary parties before the Court are, therefore, the Legislature, which enacted the Implementing Law, the Governor, who signed the Compact and Implementing Law, and the People (through Petitioners), whose constitutional power was usurped,” attorneys noted in the brief to the court.
A ruling would finally bring a close to legal wranglings that began after courts initially put a pause to betting in 2021 – that is unless the federal Supreme Court decides to review the case.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs have already appealed the issue to the federal Supreme Court, arguing that the agreement violated equal protection aspects of the Constitution by granting “an Indian tribe a statewide monopoly to conduct online sports gaming while simultaneously making such conduct a felony if done by anyone of a different race, ancestry, ethnicity, or national origin.”
The Supreme Court gave the tribe a favorable ruling, although Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed some agreement with the equal protections issue. However, he agreed that the issue should be heard at the state supreme court level and that justices could possibly take up the issue later.
Since the Supreme Court overturned a federal law banning almost all sports betting outside Nevada in 2018, more than two-thirds of states have legalized wagering. Vermont is one of the latest to launch with betting set to start Jan. 11.
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