It has been a year since the Florida sports betting legal battle started. It would have been easier if the state made voters choose whether they wanted to bet on sports. But instead, the state opted to amend its compact with the tribes.
Federal prosecutors and attorneys filed an appeal to reinstate Florida’s and the Seminole Tribe’s gaming agreement. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. previously agreed to a contract that essentially granted the tribe control over sports gambling in the state.
According to sports betting platform experts, US District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of the District of Columbia decided to void the gaming agreement. The judge saw it as an effort to skirt the state’s constitutional limitation on extending gambling outside tribal property without voter permission.
Florida Sports Betting Legal Battle
It would be accomplished by directing all sports wagers through servers within a Seminole territory, as stipulated by the treaty. Hopefully, they use the best software for sportsbooks. The hub-and-spoke concept has been used before in discussions about sports betting and legislation, thus its name.
All parties involved in the case appeared before the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, with attorneys representing the Seminole Tribe, the United States Department of the Interior, and the State of Florida. In addition, attorneys representing the plaintiffs were the West Flagler Associates. The Bonita Springs Poker Room and the Magic City Casino owners also appeared before the Court of Appeals.
Whether or whether Secretary of the Interior and member of the agency supervising tribal gaming Deb Haaland complied with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) by doing nothing to stop the deal between Governor Ron DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe was the main point of contention.
While the hub-and-spoke model is contentious in the realm of regulation, it continues to find widespread use in transportation, software design, and other areas. The question is whether this methodology can legally facilitate sports betting.