If you’re keeping score, the Seminole Tribe won another point when the Florida Supreme Court washed its hands in November of the legal conflict between the tribe and West Flagler Associates/Bonita-Fort Myers Corp.
The companies, which operate poker rooms and jai-alai betting, have challenged the gambling contract between the state and the tribe.
The West group charges that the hub-and-spoke design of the Seminole mobile sports betting system doesn’t hold water. Under the design, Floridians can call in to place bets from anywhere in the state, which means off of tribal lands. But the bets are transmitted for processing to a server very much on tribal lands.
And therein lies one of the legal challenges.
So far the law has sided with the Seminoles, mostly. The tribe went live with its sports betting app last month, and in early December will open in-person sportsbooks at its six casinos.
The latest decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in October let stand an appellate decision that permitted the Seminole Tribe to go live with Hard Rock Bet, the sports betting app.
Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the decision by the court referred only to the compact with Florida, which permitted gambling on tribal lands. If the Seminoles went beyond tribal borders, it would be a violation of federal law, he said.
The tribe had a sports betting app in 2021 after signing a deal with the state giving it the exclusive right to do so. The tribe unplugged the app after the legal challenges emerged.
The Seminole Tribe has a state monopoly on sports betting and a near monopoly on casino gaming. The compact with the state gives the Seminoles the right to add craps and roulette. The state did not challenge the monopoly as it meant billions for state coffers.
But court action has kept a final resolution from emerging, according to the Key Biscayne Independent.
In addition to the question of legality of the mobile sports betting system with calls coming from outside tribal lands, West Flagler and company charge that a state constitutional amendment in 2018 required voters to approve any new gambling.
“It prohibited the authorization of casino gambling other than through a citizen initiative,” said Daniel Wallach, founder of Wallach Legal, a law firm in Hallandale Beach focused on the gambling industry. “It really provided the people with the sole right to authorize casino gambling.”
71 percent of voters voted in favor of adding the language to the Florida constitution, language that defines casino gambling as games included in the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and games typically found in a casino when the amendment was approved.
As for the hub-and-spoke system, the compact accepts that.
That constitutional amendment which requires any gambling expansion in Florida to be decided by voters does not end the practice of negotiating compacts with tribes.
“I think this is where the rubber meets the road,” Wallach told the Key Biscayne Independent. “I think the key question is whether sports wagering, even if it is a casino game, falls within the exception to [the] amendment for casino gambling on tribal lands.”
“Legislators can make laws, but they can’t make up truth,” said Jon Sowinksi, founder of No Casinos, the organization that led the way for the constitutional amendment. “They don’t have a magic wand that teleport us on to tribal lands.”
Wallach says sports betting is just part of the battle. Online casino gaming brings in more money and might be scrutinized far more than sports betting.
“That’s the big battle looming down the road,” Wallach said. “The economic upside would be in the billions.”
Gambling has been huge for the Seminole Tribe in Florida. The tribe runs a half dozen casinos in Florida, including Hard Rock resorts in Broward County and Tampa, and Seminole casinos in central and southwest Florida. As a result, It is one of the wealthiest native American tribes.
“And the difference was casinos,” Jessica Cattelino, author of “High Stakes: Florida Seminole Gaming and Sovereignty,” told the Independent.
“It has allowed the Seminole Tribe as a government to do what it wants to do as a government [and] to ensure some financial security for its citizens,” she said. “It has also really placed the Seminoles on the leading edge of litigation, but also a broader understanding of tribal sovereignty and the political authority of American Indian tribal nations.”
“Historically, it’s been hard for tribes to assert their political power because they haven’t had resources,” Cattelino said. “It’s common understanding in politics that having resources strengthens our nation’s sovereignty. And it’s no different for the Seminole tribe.”
