Seminole Tribe suspends sports betting in Florida following court rulings

Sports betting is off the table in Florida, at least for the time being, after the Seminole tribe shut down online sports betting on Saturday morning.

The tribe stopped accepting bets on its Hard Rock SportsBook mobile app after an appeals court on Friday refused to put a judge’s ruling on hold that said an agreement would give the tribe control over sports betting across the state , violates federal law.

The Seminoles “will temporarily cease operations of their Florida mobile app,” based on the decision of a split three-person jury of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Friday, Tribal spokesman Gary Bitner said in an email on Saturday.

Previous reporting:

“Account balances of all current players will be refunded as requested,” said Bitner.

Bettors who tried to use the Hard Rock app on Saturday morning received a message that online sports betting has been suspended until further notice.

“Although we are temporarily suspending the acceptance of new bets and account deposits, we remain determined to establish the best place for sports betting in Florida,” the statement said.

Active bets before 11:00 am will be settled today

The app also said that “all active bets for events beginning before 11:00 AM ET on December 4th will be settled and settled based on the event outcome per normal.” All bets for events starting after 11:00 on Saturday will be “voided and the initial bet amounts returned to your app wallet,” it said.

“Your funds are safe and secure. The app stays active for simple withdrawals, ”the message reads and advises users to check social media for updates.

Sports betting was part of a 30-year deal known as the Contract signed by Governor Ron DeSantis and Chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Marcellus Osceola, Jr., this spring, and approved by the Legislature in a special session in May.

The “hub-and-spoke” sports betting plan in the Compact was developed to allow gamblers across the state to place bets online, with bets being run through computer servers on tribal property. The contract states that bets made anywhere in Florida using a mobile app or other electronic device will be handled as exclusively by the tribe.

As part of the pact, the tribe pledged to pay at least $ 2.5 billion to the state for the first five years for sports betting and other benefits such as craps and roulette in tribal casinos. According to court records, the Seminoles have paid the state $ 75 million since October.

The owners of Magic City Casino in Miami-Dade County and the Bonita Springs Poker Room in southwest Florida have challenged the contract in federal courts in Washington, DC and Tallahassee, claiming that the sports betting provision is federal and “significant and potentially devastating.” “Would have an effect. Have an impact on their businesses. The Havenick family has been owned by the Pari-Mutuels for decades.

US District Judge Dabney Friedrich on November 22, declared the pact invalid in the Washington case, ruling that US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, whose agency is responsible for tribal gambling, made a mistake when she signed the pact this summer came into force.

Friedrich ruled the deal violates the Indian Gambling Regulation (IGRA) federal law, which creates a framework for gambling activities in tribal areas. The ruling focused on allowing gamblers to place bets across the state rather than solely on the property of the Seminoles.

“In total, over a dozen regulations in the IGRA regulate gambling on ‘Indian land’ and none regulate gambling elsewhere,” she wrote. “It is also clear that the Secretary of the Interior Ministry must reject contracts that violate the terms of the IGRA.”

Although the contract assumes that sports betting will take place at the location of the tribe’s servers, “this court cannot accept this fiction,” wrote Friedrich. The judge also denied the Seminoles’ motions to intervene and dismiss the lawsuit filed against Haaland and the Home Office.

Seminole Tribe applied for residency following the federal judge’s ruling

The tribe, who continued to allow Florida sports bettors to place bets on its mobile app following Friedrich’s verdict until Saturday, filed an urgency motion last week asking the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to suspend Friedrich’s verdict.

But after a flood of court records this week, a panel of the court rejected the Seminoles’ attempt to put Friedrich’s verdict on hold pending their appeal.

“The complainant did not meet the strict requirements for a suspension of the appeal,” says the order of Judges Cornelia TL Pillard and Justin R. Walker. The order said Judith W. Rogers had granted a reprieve. The appellate judges did not explain their reasons, as is customary with such decisions.

Saturday’s statement on behalf of the Seminoles said the tribe “looks forward to working with the state of Florida and the US Department of Justice to aggressively defend its validity in the appeals court still ruling the merits of the 2021 pact got to. ”

The statement said the state, federal government and tribe “all took the position” that the pact is legal.

Attorneys for the US Department of Justice said in a court document this week that the government has not denied the tribe’s emergency request for suspension and has not yet decided whether to appeal Friedrich’s verdict.

While the tribe is appealing Friedrich’s ruling, the pari-mutuel owners are appealing a decision by US District Judge Allen Winsor, who dismissed the Florida contract lawsuit.

Winsor said in October the Pari-Mutuels had no legal authority to sue DeSantis and Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce and Professional Regulation Julie Brown over the gambling agreement. The Pari-Mutuels announced last week that they would take the case to the 11th US Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Friedrich also noted that the pact violated a 2018 constitutional amendment that required nationwide voter approval for the expansion of gambling, including sports betting.

However, the judge stated that their ruling “does not preclude other avenues for approving online sports betting in Florida”.

For example, she wrote, the state could negotiate a new contract with the tribe “that allows online games only in Native American territories.”

Friedrich also suggested that the Floridians could agree to a citizens’ initiative to allow online sports betting, a venture already underway that could be boosted by their ruling.

© 2021 The Florida Intelligence Service. All rights reserved.

The post Seminole Tribe suspends sports betting in Florida following court rulings first appeared on Daily Florida Press.

from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/seminole-tribe-suspends-sports-betting-in-florida-following-court-rulings/