You may remember that brief window when sports gambling was legal in Florida. It was based on a gaming compact between the Seminole Tribe and Florida. But then a few brick-and-mortar casinos challenged the compact in federal court in D.C. They initially won, halting sports betting.
Well, dust off your Hard Rock Sportsbook app. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the district court, holding that the Secretary of the Interior did not violate the Administrative Procedures Act when she allowed the gaming compact to go into effect.
The opinion, excerpted below, gets into the meaning of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and what it can--and cannot--regulate. But the Court dodged a significant question. Under the gaming compact, when a person places a bet electronically in Florida, the bet is "deemed" to take place "where received at the location of the servers" (these servers apparently being located on Seminole land). So, even if the bettor is not physically located on Indian land when placing the bet, the bet is considered to be placed on Indian land. The Court did not address whether that's legal under Florida law (or even whether the Florida statute ratifying the compact is constitutional).
My guess is that the app will be accepting bets again soon, but there'll be more legal challenges to come. In the meantime, Dolphins at +1100 to win the AFC....
Seminole Gaming Appeal by John Byrne on Scribd
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