Florida AG Urges Judge To Dismiss Lawsuit Against Sports Betting By Seminole Tribe

The Attorney General’s office in Florida has filed a motion to dismiss a case challenging the legality of the Seminole Tribe‘s online sports betting in the state. 

A lawsuit filed in April by Protect The Constitution, LLC, claims the compact that the Seminole Tribe signed with Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021 violates state laws. 

The compact allows the tribe to offer online sports betting as part of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which allows gambling on tribal lands. According to the agreement, because the servers are on tribal lands, this equates to bets being placed on tribal lands. 

In 2018, however, a constitutional amendment that gave Florida voters a say in any future expansion of gambling was approved.

Residents voted 71% in favor of the amendment, which “ensures that Florida voters shall have the exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling” in the state. It required a vote through a citizens’ initiative “for casino gambling to be authorized under Florida law.”

The agreement between DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe allows online sports betting through the tribe’s Hard Rock Bet platform. However, this was never put to a public vote.

There is debate over whether this constitutes casino gambling. At the time of the 2018 amendment, online sports betting was not part of the discussions. 

Lawsuit Claims Voters Must Approve Online Sports Betting

The lawsuit filed states that, “Today, online sports betting occurs throughout the state of Florida. But no citizens’ initiative has ever been held to provide authorization. 

“And the people of Florida have never been allowed to exercise their constitutional right to decide whether sports betting should be authorized throughout the state.”

Courts initially ruled against the legality of the 2021 compact, and the Seminole Tribe shut down Hard Rock Sportsbook shortly after its launch.

Federal judge Dabney Friedrich did not endorse the argument that bets were placed on tribal lands because the servers were stored there. He ordered a return to the 2010 compact, which does not authorize online sports betting. 

Courts Previously Sided With Seminole Tribe

In 2023, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed the decision made by Friedrich in 2021. It ruled that the compact permitted betting from anywhere as long as servers remain on tribal lands. 

Subsequently, Hard Rock Bet relaunched its sportsbook in November 2023. From that point through May 2024, the sportsbook took in $12 billion in wagers from residents. Florida took in around $357 million in shared revenue over that period. 

The US Supreme Court also refused to hear a case challenging the legality of the compact last year. The court ruled that the lawsuit had filed the wrong type of petition.  

Florida AG Claims Tribal Gaming Exception Applies

The motion to dismiss the lawsuit uses the same arguments from the Supreme Court case last year. It contends that an exception to the 2018 amendment applies, which protects the rights of gambling on tribal lands. 

The amendment states, “nothing herein shall be construed to limit the ability of the state or Native American tribes to negotiate gaming compacts pursuant to the Federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act for the conduct of casino gambling on tribal lands, or to affect any existing gambling on tribal lands pursuant to compacts executed by the state and Native American tribes pursuant to IGRA.”

The motion to dismiss states that “online sports betting is validly addressed in the 2021 compact, and compacts are exempted from the citizen-initiative process.”

“Casino gambling or not, sports betting was properly authorized by the compact.”

With the precedent set by previous rulings, the chances of success for the lawsuit are estimated to be low. However, this case will go through a more typical legal process in circuit court. The case is assigned to Judge Jonathan Sjostrom in Leon County.