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

The Seminole Tribe of Florida and a group of businesses that run racetracks and poker rooms person settled a yearslong ineligible conflict complete whether nan Seminole Tribe should person exclusive authorities to online sports betting successful Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Seminole Tribe of Florida and a group of businesses that run racetracks and poker rooms person settled a yearslong ineligible conflict complete whether nan Seminole Tribe should person exclusive authorities to online sports betting successful Florida, nan people announced Monday.

The Seminole Tribe, on pinch West Flagler Associates and nan Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., person entered into a broad statement wherever nan companies person agreed to extremity litigation against nan tribe's gaming operations and alternatively will statesman a caller business to connection Jai Alai waging connected nan tribe's Hard Rock Bet app.

“Rather than engaging successful years of further litigation, this statement will let nan parties to activity together to beforehand Jai Alai, which has played an important domiciled successful Florida’s gaming scenery for astir 100 years,” Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen said successful a statement.

The companies that had been suing nan Seminole Tribe took a rustle successful June, erstwhile nan U.S. Supreme Court refused to return up a situation to an statement that gave nan Seminole Tribe exclusive authorities to grip online sports betting successful Florida. The nation's highest tribunal denied a petition from opponents of nan compact, which promises to rake successful hundreds of millions of dollars for nan people and nan state. In March, nan Florida Supreme Court had ruled that nan companies had revenge nan incorrect type of petition to situation nan 2021 compact betwixt nan Seminole Tribe of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.

The companies had antecedently based on that nan compact gives nan people a sports betting monopoly successful nan nation's third-most populous authorities and that nan U.S. Department of Interior wrongly approved nan compact moreover though it violates nan Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which requires that gambling hap connected tribal lands.

The companies questioned whether online sports bets that tin beryllium placed from anyplace successful Florida could beryllium considered to beryllium connected tribal onshore erstwhile only nan machine servers that big nan betting services are located there. They said DeSantis and nan Legislature, which approved nan compact, improperly exceeded their powers by authorizing sports betting disconnected tribal lands.

The people launched its online sports betting cognition precocious past year, and authorities economical forecasters foretell that nan gross sharing from tribal gambling could full $4.4 cardinal done nan extremity of this decade.