This just in: Sports betting is still not legal in Florida.
Sounds like an SNL skit. So is there anything new to report? Come to think of it, there are at least incremental rulings.
The Florida Supreme Court gave Governor Ron DeSantis and team a 30-day extension to provide a response to the filing by a pair of parimutuels who argued against such an extension. The ruling gives the governor’s office until December 1 to respond, which happens to be 11 days after West Flagler and Associates expect to file their case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
And Florida still has no sports betting.
The Florida Supreme Court warned the DeSantis group not to ask for more extensions, because they won’t get it. Well, it’s highly unlikely absent extenuating situations.
All these court gyrations come to the forefront over a compact agreement in which the Seminole Tribe would exercise a monopoly over sports betting in Florida by having bets placed throughout the state but processed via servers on tribal land.
The DeSantis team blamed a heavy workload for its extension request. West Flagler saw it as improper. A U.S. Supreme Court order prohibits the Seminoles from going live with its sports betting program, but retaining the ban could stop, depending on the way the U.S. Supreme Court goes.
The Biden administration has come out in favor of the appeals court ruling that would permit the Seminoles to open online sports betting all over Florida. But Chief Justice John Roberts put a temporary stop on the appeals court decision on October 12, according to WUSF.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar prepared a 29-page response to Roberts’ order.
West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. sought a stay as they prepare to ask the Supreme Court to take up a challenge to the appeals-court ruling. The order said what is known as a “mandate,” which is a final step in the appeals-court ruling, is “hereby recalled and stayed pending further order of the undersigned (Roberts) or of the (Supreme) Court.”
The chief justice told the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to respond to the parimutuels’ stay request.
In her filing, Prelogar represented the DOI, and argued against the contentions raised by the parimutuels. She also doubts the Supreme Court will accept the West Flagler bid to be heard.
While the compact addresses a series of issues, the lawsuit centers on a plan that would allow gamblers to place mobile sports wagers anywhere in the state, with bets handled by computer servers on tribal property. The deal said bets “using a mobile app or other electronic device, shall be deemed to be exclusively conducted by the tribe.”
The parimutuel companies argue, in part, that the plan was devised to get around a 2018 state constitutional amendment that required voter approval of casino gambling in Florida. The DOI allowed the compact to move forward. But the lawsuit maintains the compact defied the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, or IGRA, by permitting gambling off tribal lands.
The appeals court “correctly determined that IGRA regulates gaming activity on Indian lands, but nowhere else,’’ Prelogar said.
Bottom line for Prelogar: the compact is “consistent” with IGRA.
“The gaming activities on Indian lands, of course, must be separately authorized under IGRA,” the solicitor general wrote. “But there is no apparent reason why a tribal-state compact that authorizes gaming activities on Indian lands under IGRA cannot also include provisions that concern the state’s (independent and non-IGRA) authorization to conduct directly related gaming activities in the state on non-Indian lands, even though IGRA and the tribal-state compact would not independently authorize those related activities.”
She took issue with West Flagler’s claims against gambling expansion. “If the Florida Supreme Court concludes that the Florida Legislature’s authorization of the placement of wagers outside Indian lands is not permissible under the Florida Constitution, which would afford applicants the relief they seek,” Prelogar wrote. “That pending case provides the appropriate forum to resolve applicants’ claims based on the meaning of state law.”
Lawyers for the parimutuel companies say IGRA does not authorize the DOI to approve a compact that allows gambling off tribal lands.
“The circuit (appeals court) opinion raises a question of nationwide importance regarding the ability of states and tribes to use IGRA compacts to provide for gaming off Indian lands,” the filing said.
West Flagler holds three jai alai licenses, while Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. does business as Bonita Springs Poker Room in Southwest Florida.
