The complaint, filed on Friday, asserts that the compact violates federal law by “deeming” that online gambling conducted under the compact’s terms is occurring on tribal lands, contradicting legal precedents already set across the United States.

At issue is the legality of the compact itself under the terms of IGRA (Indian Gaming Regulatory Act), the federal law that has governed tribal gaming across the United States for three decades. In other court cases involving online gambling, federal courts have held that IGRA’s language forbids tribal nations to offer online (remote) gambling to off-reservation bettors.

Those decisions, such as a long-running battle involving California’s Iipay Nation that ended in 2018, appeared to preclude the type of arrangement agreed to in the Florida-Seminole compact. Regulated online gambling throughout the US is generally deemed to occur at the location where a bettor places a bet or wager.

Despite warnings from legal observers, Florida greenlighted the pact, though it remains under review within the federal government’s Department of the Interior. The complaint tracks the same argument, stating, “The 2021 compact and implementing law contradict decades of federal legislation and established precedent defining where a bet or wager is placed.”

Should the “Southwest Pari-mutuels” — the poker room and casino are both in southwest Miami and are owned by the same company — be successful in their action, the compact could be tossed out, even though it contains severability clauses that might give the Seminole Tribe certain exclusive new rights anyway.

Those exclusive rights could include the tribal nation still being able to offer sports betting, but only on-reservation, at its several venues across the state. The competitive disadvantage thus placed upon Florida’s pari-mutuel facilities serves as the impetus for the action.

Florida’s online gambling market access at stake
The lawsuit was filed by the poker room’s and casino’s corporate parents, Bonita-Fort Myers Corporation and West Flagler Associates, Ltd. The complaint names Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the lead defendant; DeSantis’s office negotiated the compact’s terms with the Seminole Tribe before it received fast-track approval from the state’s legislature in May.

The compact grants the Seminole Tribe the exclusive rights to conduct several forms of online gambling in Florida, including sports betting and casino games, giving the state’s other gambling venues, such as pari-mutuel facilities and poker rooms, only limited means for providing other online gambling services.

Online poker was originally part of the compact negotiations, though Florida’s legislature quickly jettisoned that language before approving most of the compact’s remaining terms. Nonetheless, Florida’s poker rooms and racetrack-casinos would like to expand their services online as well, with the possibility of offering legal sports betting a big want for these venues.

The compact’s terms direct the Seminole Tribe to conduct good-faith negotiations in partnering with three or more pari-mutuel facilities in the state in what would amount to affiliate deals using the Seminole Tribe’s servers, a prospect the plaintiffs want no part of.

This article excerpt is from CardsChat.com. To view the entire original story, share and comment, click here.