Supreme Court Declines Florida Sports Betting CaseRuling Means Sports Wagering Will Continue |
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The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case against the Seminoles of Florida over the tribe’s agreement with the state regarding operating online sports betting.
The ruling came last week and clears the deck for the tribe to continue operating wagering statewide after a legal back-and-forth with two Florida gaming operators over the last two years. The Seminoles will remain the sole online sports betting operator in the state after the ruling.
“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,” tribe spokesman Gary Bitner told the Tampa Bay Times. “It means members of the Seminole Tribe and all Floridians can count on a bright future made possible by the compact.”
Fight May Continue At State Level
The plaintiffs in the case, West Flagler Associates, argued that the agreement violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act by allowing wagering outside the Seminoles’ traditional tribal lands.
A district court originally ruled in West Flagler’s favor in 2021, but a federal appeals court reversed that decision. The Supreme Court choosing not to take the case may now end appeals at the federal level.
“This was not a good case for the court to take up,” Nova Southeastern University gambling law professor Bob Jarvis told WPBF. “It’s not the kind of case that the court typically takes up. The court likes to take up cases where there is a conflict between two or more Courts of Appeals. And here we didn’t have that – we just had a decision by the DC Court of Appeals.”
Despite the ruling, the plaintiffs could still seek an intervention at the state level as well. The Florida Supreme Court tossed an appeal in March, ruling that opponents had filed the wrong type of petition in the case, sending the issue back to a lower court. Whether the plaintiffs will continue a challenge via that route isn’t yet known.
West Flagler Associates have argued that the state’s compact with the Seminoles runs contrary to a state ban on expanded gambling approved by voters in 2018.
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