Florida sports betting lawsuit ends in win for Seminole Tribe
Magic City Casino and Bonita Springs Poker Room defeated as judge rules operators cannot sue Florida governor and state officials
Florida’s Northern District Court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Sunshine State’s new tribal sports betting compact with the Seminole Tribe.
In a ruling issued by the US Northern District Court of Florida, Judge Allen Winsor rejected the suit, suggesting West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp did not have the standing required to sue Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
In its suit, both firms argued that the compact violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) by allowing online sports betting outside of Indian land and that the state exceeded its regulatory authority in doing so.
The notion suggested that the state’s actions in granting the tribal compact caused the parimutuels financial injury by giving the Seminole tribe exclusivity on sports betting off reservation.
Transactions would go through servers located on tribal land in a so-called “hub and spoke” model, something which bypasses both federal and state law, which both deem sports betting illegal in Florida.
In addition, the pair argued the compact violates both the Wire Act (1961) and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), due to widespread sports betting currently being illegal in Florida.
Centrally, the lawsuit failed to secure approval from Judge Winsor as the parimutuel pair of operators could not prove any damage caused was directly traceable to actions undertaken by DeSantis.
Citing legal precedent, Winsor dismissed the assertion that damage could be traced back to DeSantis in his role as Florida governor.
“An official action must relate to enforcement—not enactment,” Winsor wrote.
“While the governor must ‘take all appropriate steps to effectuate [the compact’s] purposes and intent,’ the parimutuels identify no duty this provision gives the governor that he did not fulfil by simply signing the compact and approving the implementing legislation.
“For post-enactment actions, the parimutuels claim that the governor must defend the compact’s validity and accept service of compact-related official notices. But these are not enough either.
“The governor is one of several officers upon whom the Tribe must serve compact-related notices—along with the President of the State Senate and Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.
“But any obligation to receive such notices (if receiving notices can be called an obligation) is far removed from the parimutuels’ injury,” Judge Winsor concluded.
A separate assertion by the parimutuels arguing that Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Julie E. Brown could be traced as the source of any injury was also dismissed by the judge in his ruling.