On Oct. 12, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a stay on the District of Columbia Circuit’s ruling in West Flagler Associates, Ltd. v. Haaland. This stay will prevent, for now, the Seminole Tribe of Florida from accepting mobile sports bets from patrons located throughout the state of Florida.
The Seminole Tribe and the state of Florida entered into a tribal-state gaming compact pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”), which authorized the tribe to accept mobile sports wagers from players located anywhere within Florida, as the bets would be considered to take place on Indian lands where the tribe’s servers are located. The compact was challenged by parimutuel betting operators. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled the compact unlawful, holding that it could not authorize activities occurring outside Indian lands. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned the district court, concluding that the compact does not independently authorize betting by patrons located outside of the tribe’s lands.
Chief Justice Roberts’ order gives the Department of the Interior and the Seminole Tribe until Oct. 18 to respond to the petitioner’s request for a long-term stay. The petitioner indicated it will be filing for certiorari with the court before the end of November 2023. There is no indication how the court will rule on the issue, but this order suggests that mobile sports betting in Florida will not resume soon.
Another key issue surrounding statewide mobile gaming is the Department of the Interior’s pending final rule on Indian gaming compacts. The potential new provision of 25 C.F.R. Part 293 provides that an agreement between a state and a tribe may deem gaming to take place, for purposes of state and tribal law, on the tribe’s Indian lands if: 1) the server accepting the wager is located there; 2) the tribe regulates the gaming; and 3) the player initiating the wager is not located on another tribe’s Indian lands.
This provision would codify the department’s reasoning contained in the deemed approval letter issued by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland to the Seminole Tribe of Florida on its compact. Such a change could grant tribes exclusivity over mobile sports betting in states where the expansion of gaming is constitutionally prohibited. However, if the U.S. Supreme Court grants certiorari in West Flagler Associates, Ltd. v. Haaland, the department might be forced to revisit this proposed change to Section 293.
