Seminoles Suspend Sports Betting After Court Rulings

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) — Gambling connected sports is disconnected the array successful Florida, astatine slightest for now, aft the Seminole Tribe suspended its online sports-betting operations Saturday morning.

The people stopped accepting wagers connected its Hard Rock SportsBook mobile app aft an appeals tribunal connected Friday refused to enactment connected clasp a judge’s ruling that said a woody giving the people power implicit sports betting passim the authorities violates national law.

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The Seminoles “will temporarily suspend operations of its mobile app successful Florida” owed to Friday’s determination by a divided three-judge sheet of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, tribal spokesperson Gary Bitner said successful an email Saturday.

“Account balances for each existent players volition beryllium refunded arsenic requested,” Bitner said.

Bettors trying to usage the Hard Rock app Saturday greeting received a connection saying the online sportsbook was discontinued until further notice.

“Although we are temporarily suspending the acceptance of caller bets and relationship deposits, we stay committed to gathering the champion spot for sports betting successful Florida,” the connection said.

The app besides said “all progressive bets for events starting earlier 11 a.m. ET connected Dec. 4 volition tally and settee based connected lawsuit result per normal.” All bets for events starting aft 11 a.m. Saturday “will beryllium voided and archetypal stake amounts returned to your app wallet,” it said.

“Your funds are harmless & secure. The app volition stay progressive for casual withdrawals,” the connection said, advising users to cheque societal media for updates.

Sports betting was included successful a 30-year deal, known arsenic a compact, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola, Jr. this outpouring and authorized by the Legislature successful a May peculiar session.

The “hub-and-spoke” sports-betting program successful the compact was designed to let gamblers passim the authorities to spot bets online, with the bets tally done machine servers connected tribal property. The compact says bets made anyplace successful Florida “using a mobile app oregon different physics device, shall beryllium deemed to beryllium exclusively conducted by the tribe.” Under the compact, the people pledged to wage astatine slightest $2.5 cardinal implicit the archetypal 5 years to the authorities due to the fact that of sports betting and different benefits, specified arsenic being capable to connection craps and roulette astatine tribal casinos. The Seminoles person paid the authorities $75 cardinal since October, according to tribunal records.

Owners of Magic City Casino successful Miami-Dade County and Bonita Springs Poker Room successful Southwest Florida challenged the compact successful national courts successful Washington, D.C. and Tallahassee, alleging the sports-betting proviso violates national instrumentality and would person a “significant and perchance devastating” interaction connected their businesses. The Havenick household has owned the pari-mutuels for decades.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich connected Nov. 22 invalidated the compact successful the Washington case, uncovering that U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose bureau oversees tribal gambling, erred erstwhile she allowed the compact to spell into effect this summer.

Friedrich ruled that the woody violates the national Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, oregon IGRA, which creates a model for gambling enactment connected tribal lands. The ruling centered connected gamblers being capable to spot wagers passim the state, alternatively than strictly connected the Seminoles’ property.

“Altogether, implicit a twelve provisions successful IGRA modulate gaming connected ‘Indian lands,’ and nary modulate gaming successful different location,” she wrote. “It is arsenic wide that the (Interior Department) caput indispensable cull compacts that interruption IGRA’s terms.”

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Although the compact deems sports betting to hap astatine the determination of the tribe’s servers, “this tribunal cannot judge that fiction,” Friedrich wrote. The justice besides rejected the Seminoles’ requests to intervene successful the lawsuit, which was filed against Haaland and the Department of the Interior, and person it dismissed.

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The tribe, which until Saturday had continued to let sports bettors successful Florida to spot wagers connected its mobile app aft Friedrich’s ruling, filed an exigency question past week asking the District of Columbia appellate tribunal to enactment Friedrich’s ruling.

But aft a flurry of tribunal filings this week, a sheet of the tribunal denied the Seminoles’ effort to enactment Friedrich’s ruling connected clasp until their entreaty is resolved.

“Appellant has not satisfied the stringent requirements for a enactment pending appeal,” the bid by Judges Cornelia T.L. Pillard and Justin R. Walker said. The bid said Judge Judith W. Rogers would person granted a stay.

The appellate judges did not elaborate connected their reasons, arsenic is communal successful specified decisions.

Saturday’s connection connected behalf of the Seminoles said the people “looks guardant to moving with the authorities of Florida and the U.S. Department of the Justice to aggressively support the validity earlier the appeals court, which has yet to regularisation connected the merits of the 2021 compact.”

The connection noted that the state, the national authorities and the people “have each taken the position” that the compact is legal.

U.S. Department of Justice lawyers said successful a tribunal papers this week the authorities did not reason the tribe’s exigency question for a enactment and that it had not decided whether to entreaty Friedrich’s ruling.

As the people pursues an entreaty of Friedrich’s ruling, the pari-mutuel owners are appealing a determination by U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, who dismissed the Florida-based suit challenging the compact.

Winsor successful October said the pari-mutuels did not person ineligible lasting to writer DeSantis and authorities Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Julie Brown implicit the gambling agreement. The pari-mutuels past week filed a announcement that they were taking the lawsuit to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Friedrich besides recovered that the compact violated a 2018 law amendment that requires statewide elector support for expansions of gambling, including sports betting.

But the justice noted that her determination “does not foreclose different avenues for authorizing online sports betting successful Florida.”

For example, she wrote, the authorities could negociate a caller compact with the people “that allows online gaming solely connected Indian lands.”

Friedrich besides suggested that Floridians could o.k. a citizens’ inaugural to let online sports betting, an effort already underway that could get a boost from her ruling.

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(©2021 CBS Local Media. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten, oregon redistributed. The News Service of Florida’s Dara Kam contributed to this report.)