Seminole Tribe settles legal challenges to online sports gambling exclusivity in Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Seminole Tribe of Florida and a group of companies that operate race tracks and poker rooms have settled a yearslong legal dispute over whether the Seminole Tribe should have exclusive rights to online sports betting in Florida, the tribe announced Monday.

The Seminole Tribe, along with West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., has entered into a comprehensive agreement under which the companies have agreed to drop lawsuits against the tribe’s gaming operations and will instead form a new partnership to Jai Alai to offer the tribe’s Hard Rock Bet app.

“Rather than face years of additional litigation, this agreement will allow the parties to work together to promote Jai Alai, which has played an important role in Florida’s gaming landscape for nearly 100 years,” said Jim Allen, CEO from Seminole Gaming, in a statement.

The companies that sued the Seminole Tribe suffered a blow in June US Supreme Court refused to accept a challenge an agreement that yielded the Seminole tribe exclusive rights to handle online sports betting in Florida. The nation’s highest court has rejected a petition from opponents of the pact, which promises to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars for the tribe and the state. In March, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the companies filed the wrong type of petition challenging the 2021 treaty between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.

The companies had previously argued that the treaty gives the tribe a monopoly on sports betting in the nation’s third-most populous state and that the U.S. Department of the Interior improperly approved the treaty even though it violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which requires gambling to take place on tribal lands.

The companies wondered whether that was the case online sports betting which can be located anywhere in Florida can be considered to be on tribal land if only the computer servers hosting the gambling services are located there. They said DeSantis and the Legislature, which approved the treaty, improperly exceeded their authority by allowing sports betting on tribal lands.

The tribe launched its online sportsbook late last year, and state economic forecasters predict that tribal gambling revenue sharing could reach $4.4 billion by the end of this decade.