West Flagler and Associates, the parimutuels contesting the Seminole Tribe’s monopoly on Hard Rock Bet sports betting platform.
The request was filed on the same day that the Seminoles launched their betting site for limited use in Florida.
The filing isn’t a surprise: In an U.S. Supreme Court in September denied a WFA request to keep the Seminoles offline.
The tribe sports betting platform despite two pending court cases. The soft launch allows immediate access by those who used the tribe’s platform during a brief go-live period in November-December 2021 and those who are Hard Rock rewards . The Seminoles released no information ahead of the launch, and they have not shared when the platform might be available for general use.
No time frame mandated for court response w2o1o
Prior to the launch, several sources told Sports Handle they believed it was unlikely that the Seminoles would go live before all legal avenues were exhausted, due to the cost of launching and shuttering and the potential for any new shutdown to drive consumers to the black market.
According to the Florida Supreme Court’s public information office, there is no mandatory time frame for the court to respond to Tuesday’s filing, but expedited requests “do get the attention of the court.” Essentially, WFA will now have to wait and see when the court responds.
WFA’s attorney wrote in the filing that “this exigency has been created by the launch of the Seminole Tribe’s mobile sports betting application on November 7, 2023, without prior warning.” The filing had not previously been submitted in order “to avoid burdening the court,” it said, and because there was no “concrete proof” that the tribe would launch the Hard Rock Bet platform.
The Seminoles announced on Nov. 1 that they would go live with in-person sports betting at their six casinos beginning Dec. 7. WFA attorneys referred to this as a “carefully crafted” distraction and suggested the tribe “sought to surprise petitioners and this court by presenting a ‘fait accompli’ on November 7.”
The crux of the legal case involves whether Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state legislature were out of bounds in approving the 2021 compact between the Seminoles and the state of Florida. The compact allows for a hub-and-spoke system, which deems that any bet placed in the state is considered to have been placed on tribal land if it flows through a server in Indian Country. Such a setup is not in place anywhere else in the U.S.
DeSantis and the legislature have until Dec. 1 to respond to the original complaint before the state Supreme Court determines if it will hear the case.
Amendment 3 was ed by Florida voters in 2018, stating that any expansion of gaming must go to the voters. WFA argues that DeSantis and the legislature circumvented this requirement by approving the compact.
WFA has also filed a case in federal court against the U.S. Department of the Interior, contending that Secretary Deb Haaland abused her power by allowing the compact to become “deemed approved.” She did not sign off on it, but the compact became approved after a 45-day stay at the DOI. A federal district court found in favor of WFA in the case, which led to the shutdown of the Seminoles’ initial sports betting app in Florida, but that decision was overturned in June by a federal appellate court.
WFA now has plans to appeal its federal case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
