![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Dabney-Friedrich-Article-201809271439.jpg\")
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich\u2019s ruling invalidated a sports betting plan in one of the nation\u2019s most highly sought-after markets and scrapped a deal negotiated by Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, if you want to place a bet right now, you still can. The Seminole Tribe said it is \u201cReviewing its options.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sports betting was included in an agreement, known as a compact, signed by the governor and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola, Jr. this spring, and approved by the Legislature during a May special session. The U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees Indian gambling issues, signed off on the deal in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in Monday\u2019s 25-page decision, Friedrich ruled that the deal violates the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, or IGRA, which creates a framework for gambling activity on tribal lands. The ruling centered on gamblers being able to place sports bets online from across the state, with the wagers run through computer servers on tribal property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAltogether, over a dozen provisions in IGRA regulate gaming on \u2018Indian lands,\u2019 and none regulate gaming in another location,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIt is equally clear that the (Interior Department) secretary must reject compacts that violate IGRA\u2019s terms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the compact deems sports betting to occur at the location of the tribe\u2019s servers, \u201cthis court cannot accept that fiction,\u201d Friedrich wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen a federal statute authorizes an activity only at specific locations, parties may not evade that limitation by \u2018deeming\u2019 their activity to occur where it, as a factual matter, does not,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the 30-year deal, the Seminoles agreed to pay the state at least $2.5 billion over the first five years in exchange for controlling sports betting and being allowed to add craps and roulette to the tribe\u2019s casino operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201chub-and-spoke\u201d sports-betting plan was designed to allow gamblers anywhere in Florida \u2014 except on other tribal lands \u2014 to place bets with mobile apps or other devices, with the compact saying bets \u201cshall be deemed to be exclusively conducted by the tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Owners of Magic City Casino in Miami-Dade County and Bonita Springs Poker Room in Southwest Florida \u2014 which have been owned by the Havenick family for decades \u2014 filed a lawsuit against U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and her agency alleging that the sports-betting plan violated federal laws and would cause a \u201csignificant and potentially devastating\u201d impact on their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friedrich\u2019s ruling, which came weeks after the tribe quietly launched its mobile sports-betting app, injects uncertainty into the Seminoles\u2019 future sports-betting activities. The tribe\u2019s Hard Rock app was still accepting wagers Tuesday morning, and a spokesman did not say whether the Seminoles plan to shut it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Seminole Tribe is reviewing the judge\u2019s opinion and carefully considering its next steps,\u201d Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the tribe, said in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Magic City called Friedrich\u2019s ruling a \u201cvictory for family-owned businesses like ours who pay their share in taxes and believe the free market should guide the business operations of gaming venues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe look forward to working with the governor, Legislature and stakeholders to pave a path forward that ensures a fair gaming marketplace exists in Florida,\u201d the pari-mutuel operator said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a court document filed this month, lawyers for Haaland conceded that the sports-betting plan would allow bets to take place off tribal land but said the state had authorized the wagers, calling it a \u201cpermissible hybrid approach\u201d that complies with state and federal law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Friedrich found that the government\u2019s reliance on Florida law to defend the compact \u201cmisses the mark\u201d because the agreement authorizes gaming off and on Indian lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Broward County, DeSantis said he negotiated the agreement with the tribe because he felt the state wasn\u2019t receiving enough money under a previous deal with the Seminoles, whose Tampa casino is one of the nation\u2019s most profitable. The governor, a lawyer, acknowledged that the hub-and-spoke plan was an \u201cunsettled legal issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey wanted to do the sports (betting), and so we said \u2018fine.\u2019 And the reason why I\u2019d said that is because it would probably pass on a referendum anyways. And then if a company gets it, the tribe gets it anyways. So, we felt that that made sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governor said the state, which is not a party in the lawsuit, would support an appeal by the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The compact was structured to allow the state to continue reaping revenues from the Seminoles\u2019 gambling activities if the sports-betting provision was struck down, DeSantis noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Friedrich\u2019s order vacated the entire compact, saying \u201cthe practical effect of this remedy\u201d reinstates a 2010 agreement with the Seminoles that expires in 2030. That deal gave the tribe the ability to offer banked card games, such as blackjack and baccarat, at most of its casinos. The tribe stopped making payments to the state in 2019 after a drawn-out dispute over \u201cdesignated player\u201d card games offered by pari-mutuels around Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friedrich also found that the new compact violated a 2018 Florida constitutional amendment that requires statewide approval for expansions of gambling, including sports betting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the judge noted that her decision \u201cdoes not foreclose other avenues for authorizing online sports betting in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, she wrote, the state could negotiate a new compact with the tribe \u201cthat allows online gaming solely on Indian lands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friedrich also suggested that Floridians could approve a citizens\u2019 initiative to allow online sports betting, an effort already underway that could get a boost from her ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Online sports betting behemoths DraftKings, Inc. and FanDuel have poured more than $32.7 million into a political committee backing a proposed Florida constitutional amendment that would legalize sports betting at professional sports venues, pari-mutuel facilities and statewide via mobile applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Tuesday, the state Division of Elections had received 116,437 valid petition signatures from the Florida Education Champions committee sponsoring the initiative. The committee would need to submit 891,589 signatures to get on the November 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee \u201cis confident\u201d that it can meet the deadline, spokeswoman Christina Johnson said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur effort was always mutually exclusive from the compact. Florida Education Champions\u2019 focus remains in securing the nearly 900,000 valid petitions to make the November 2022 ballot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Calling it a \u201cfiction,\u201d a Washington, D.C.-based judge late Monday ruled that a deal giving the Seminole Tribe control of online sports betting in Florida violates a federal law that… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[906],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51410,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51408\/revisions\/51410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}