Is Sports Betting Coming To Florida?
When New York legalized online sports betting, sports betting supporters scored a big win. If the developments in Florida come to fruition, New York might only be the second most significant development on the legal sports betting front in 2021.
So what is the big news?
Gov. Ron DeSantis has reached an agreement with the Seminole Tribe on a new gambling compact that would, among other things, legalize retail and mobile sports betting in the Sunshine State. The compact is welcome news on the US sports betting front, as Florida is the third most populous state in the country, with 21.5 million residents.
But, it has much larger implications for the overall gambling landscape in Florida as it resolves a multi-year dispute between the state and the Seminole Tribe.
The compact is a 30-year agreement that would see the Tribe resume its obligations to the state -obligations the Tribe suspended in May 2019 after claiming specific games offered at state cardrooms violate the Tribe’s exclusivity agreement. The deal would allow the Tribe to expand its gambling offerings, including sports betting, and open new gaming facilities on tribal lands. Those concessions would cause the Tribe to drop its exclusivity claims against cardrooms and resume its payments.
What the New Florida Compact Says
The specifics of the sports betting portion of the new gambling compact are still murky. Here’s what we currently know.
As noted, the compact has a 30-year term and, per reports, will net the state as much as $2.5 billion in the first five years and up to $6 billion by 2030.
The compact seeks to allow:
- The Seminole Tribe to add Craps and Roulette tables at its casinos;
- The Tribe to also open new facilities on the Tribe’s Hollywood reservation;
- Implement a new revenue-sharing agreement with the state that could reach as high as $600 million annually; and
- Retail sports betting and statewide online sports betting in partnership with the state’s 35 parimutuel facilities.
How the new sports betting industry would be structured is still murky, with the only known being it will all run through the Seminole Tribe.
Florida Sports Betting Legislation Has A Long Road Ahead
The compact is an official agreement between Gov. DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe, but it will need to clear multiple hurdles before it becomes a reality.
The first hurdle is legislative approval. The Florida legislature has scheduled a special session beginning on May 17 to deal with the matter and some other related gaming bills.
If the legislature greenlights the compact, the next hurdle is the Department of Interior, which will need to sign off on the new arrangement.
The final hurdles may or may not exist, with the former being a heavy favorite.
As is the case in New York, there is the possibility of a legal challenge stemming from a 2018 Florida law that requires a voter referendum to expand gambling in the state and whether sports betting falls under that law’s scope. There is also a question of whether the Tribe can offer a form of gambling that is not legal in the state.
Additionally, the sports betting proposal hinges on a still unanswered question in gaming law, where does a bet take place. Under the compact, the Tribe would offer mobile betting statewide as long as the servers are located on tribal land.
That assessment is debatable under IGRA, and in other locales, tribes have limited mobile betting to exclusively on tribal lands, or they’ve been licensed as commercial operators.
And the case law concurs (California v. Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel):
As gaming law attorney Daniel Wallach told the local press, “I think the legal risk for the state of Florida is exceptionally high. And there will undoubtedly be litigation over this with a relatively high likelihood that this sports betting framework will be overturned by a federal court.”
Upshot
As much as Florida would love for the Seminole Tribe to resume its $300 million annual payments, the agreed-upon compact raises many questions.
Steve Ruddock is the content director for BettingUSA and the Editor-in-Chief of Gaming Law Review.
Steve has covered the legal and legislative developments in the US gambling sector for more than a decade for online and print publications.
