Mobile sports betting in Florida was shut down about a month following its debut when a suit filed by two card rooms challenging the deal that the Seminole Tribe made with the DeSantis administration was upheld. The suit claimed that because the bets were processed through servers on the reservation meant the bets were actually placed on the reservation was a fiction, and was therefore a violation of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has informed the court that an appeal of the decision has been filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit. Haaland contends that her department had the right, under IGRA, to approve the compact, which essentially gave the Seminoles a monopoly on sports betting in the state of Florida, although the tribe can allow parimutuels and online sports betting companies to accept bets if the tribe gets the lion’s share of the revenue.
On November 22, a U.S. District court invalidated the federal approval of the compact, and denied an injunction from the tribe to be permitted to operate sports betting while an appeal was under way. The Seminoles had launched sports betting on November 1 and were forced to halt mobile betting.
The Seminoles has appealed the decision in December, but the addition of the Interior Department will make the case stronger. They’ll need to show exactly why wagers made elsewhere in the state should be considered wagers on Indian land. No date for a new hearing has been set.
