U.S. District Court Judge Allen Winsor recently ruled that West Flagler Associates, owners of Magic City Casino in Miami and Bonita Springs Poker Room, had no standing to sue the Seminole Tribe and Governor Ron DeSantis over sports betting. Winsor said West Flagler couldn’t prove the governor’s actions harmed the parimutuels, as they claimed in the lawsuit.
It’s the first victory for the state and the Seminoles out of three legal challenges they’re facing over sports wagering.
A provision of the new 30-year compact between the tribe and the state of Florida, signed in April, gives the tribe a monopoly over online sports betting, since it allows mobile bets placed anywhere in the state to be processed by servers on the tribe’s reservation. The law allowing the compact was considered to be approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior in August, after the agency took no action on it.
The compact also allows the Seminoles to offer roulette and baccarat in their casinos. In return the tribe agreed to pay the state at least $500 million a year.
West Flagler Associates, owned by the Havenick family, argued the new compact hurts their businesses and violates federal law. The parimutuels asked the court in July to issue an injunction against the compact’s sports betting provision because it authorizes internet gaming outside of tribal land in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and unfairly harms them in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
But Winsor rejected West Flagler’s arguments, noting for DeSantis’ signing of the compact to have an impact on the parimutuels, his “official action must relate to enforcement−not enactment.” Winsor also said the state, specifically the secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, has no authority to enforce the conditions of the compact. The judge wrote, “The parimutuels point to nothing that the secretary does under the compact that enables the tribe to offer online sports-betting.”
He also noted DeSantis and DBPR do not implement the compact; that’s the tribe’s responsibility as a sovereign entity under state and federal law. Winsor stated, “As the parimutuels acknowledge, the implementing law became effective immediately upon the governor’s approval, and the Florida Secretary of State already submitted it for federal approval. Now that the die is cast, it is not clear what the governor has to do with ‘implementing’ the sports betting provisions. So there is no indication that an injunction against the governor would ‘significantly increase the likelihood’ that the parimutuels would obtain relief, ‘whether directly or indirectly.’”
In addition, Winsor ruled the parimutuels’ suggested solution−ordering DeSantis to halt the compact−is flawed because “even assuming a declaration against the governor would bind the state, it would not bind the tribe, which would have no obligation to recognize any declaration’s legal effect.’’
Seminole Tribe spokesman Gary Bitner called Winsor’s ruling “an important first legal victory for the state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe and we look forward to future legal decisions in our favor.”
Two more lawsuits could derail the launch of online sports wagering, however. In September, West Flagler Associates sued U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and her agency in the District Court for the District of Columbia. West Flagler asked the court to reject the sports-betting portion of the Seminole compact, alleging it violates federal law−specifically, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which requires state-sanctioned gambling to take place on tribal land.
Also suing in federal court in the District of Columbia to stop gambling expansion in Florida are businessmen Armando Codina and Norman Braman and the No Casinos organization. In 2018, Codina and Braman backed No Casinos and its work on passing Amendment 3, which amended the Florida constitution to require statewide voter approval of any gambling expansion.
A hearing has been scheduled for November 5 in the District Court for the District of Columbia to hear separate oral arguments on the West Flagler and No Casinos lawsuits.
Florida-based gaming and sports betting attorney Daniel Wallach said the District Court case is more significant than the case dismissed in the Northern District of Florida, since it challenges the Department of Interior. Wallach said, “The proper defendant is and has always been the Department of the Interior. The reason why D.C. is so important is that the federal courts in Washington, D.C. have recognized the standing of competitors to challenge federal agency approvals of tribal gaming compacts.”
Wallach said the state’s and tribe’s argument that sports bets are processed by computer servers located within Native American is “a fiction that has been rejected by every federal court that has considered the issue.” He said the court probably will issue an injunction, but that won’t be the last of it.
Another challenge to the Seminole Tribe’s sports betting monopoly concerns the ballot drive backed by the group Florida Education Champions, financed with $20 million from FanDuel and DraftKings. They’re seeking voter approval in 2022 of a constitutional amendment that would allow online sports betting at all Florida parimutuels, professional sports stadiums and anywhere else in the state via a mobile sports betting platform. The group needs to collect 891,589 valid Florida voter signatures essentially by the end of the year to be placed on the 2022 General Election ballot
In addition, the Seminoles recently gave $10 million to the Standing Up for Florida political committee to fight Florida Education Champions’ effort with cable TV and internet ads urging people to “say no to gambling petitions” and to “watch out for out-of-state gambling companies spending tens of millions to turn our state into another Las Vegas.”
Under the new compact, online sports betting, like on-site wagering, could have launched October 15 but the Seminoles have said they’re targeting November 15 as the start date.
