About the only new news to come from an article in the November 16 issue of Law and Crime was that the lawsuit involving sports betting, the Seminole Tribe, the federal Department of the Interior (DOI) and two parimutuel facilities is unlikely to culminate before the end of 2022, some six weeks from now.
“Based on current projections, this case may take longer than expected. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has issued a timetable projecting that the case cannot be resolved in 2022,” A. Jeff Ifrah of Ifrah Law said.
To rehash the leadup to that pronouncement, two casinos—West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers—filed a federal lawsuit in mid-2021 against the DOI secretary, Debra Haaland. The two casinos claim that the gaming compact between the state and the Seminoles is illegal as it infringes on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the Wire Act, and the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
The compact gave the Seminoles exclusivity to online and mobile sports betting statewide. A lower court judge vacated the compact, thus vacating sports betting.
Meanwhile, commercial operators failed to get on the 2022 ballot. The next chance for a ballot initiative would be in 2024. It’s also unlikely the legislature would vote to legalize without the backing of the Seminoles, so a lot rides on the court decision.
Legal experts previously told Sports Handle that no matter the decision by the appeals court, the loser will likely file an appeal or an injunction against wagering should the DOI get a favorable ruling with the U.S. Supreme Court, meaning live sports betting is still far in the future.
The suit alleges that the completed compact in May 2021 unlawfully allows online sports betting where customers do not need to be on tribal land to wager. The Seminoles would have a statewide monopoly on mobile and retail sports betting. And the tribal justification doesn’t fly, the suit claims. To wit: the servers which process the wagers lie on tribal land.
The lawsuit describes the compact as based on a “legal fiction,” in which the compact claims that the sports betting occurs “on tribal land” because the servers that handle the online bets are located on tribal land, even if the bettors themselves place wagers from elsewhere in the state of Florida.
The court of appeals received opening briefs from defendants in August, with replies November 14. The Seminoles filed an appellant brief requesting standing in the case. If the court grants Seminoles their appeal, the tribe would likely move to have the case dismissed because of sovereign immunity. Oral arguments are set for December 14.
The rationale: The interpretation by IGRA is that it deals only with wagering on tribal lands and does not deal with digital wagering. At least for now. The 2021 Seminole-Florida compact would allow for statewide digital wagering, but require all bets to come through servers on Seminole lands, a situation not applicable anywhere else in the U.S., according to Pechanga.net.
