The gaming compact signed by the Seminole Tribe and the state faces a new court challenge.
A shadowy group that advocates for “lawful” casino gambling is challenging the Seminole Tribe’s online sports betting operation in a lawsuit that argues voter approval should have preceded the rollout of the tribe’s app-based wagering system.
A Delaware-based company called Protect the Constitution LLC filed the lawsuit on April 23 in the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County. The complaint argues Article 10, Section 30 of the state constitution requires that in order for sports betting to be authorized in Florida, a statewide vote favoring such a gambling expansion must occur.
“Today, online sports betting occurs throughout the state of Florida,” the lawsuit states. “But no citizens’ initiative has ever been held to provide authorization. And the people of Florida have never been allowed to exercise their constitutional right to decide whether sports betting should be authorized throughout the state.”
Article 10, Section 30 was added to the constitution as a result of the voters’ approval of an initiative in 2018, called Amendment 3.
The state and the Seminole Tribe signed a compact in April 2021 that gave the tribe the exclusive right to offer sports betting in Florida. The Legislature later implemented the compact with legislation. The tribe’s sports betting monopoly was challenged in federal litigation by West Flagler Associates, which owns gambling and entertainment venues in the state, but West Flagler’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied last year.
The lawsuit seeks a court declaration saying sports betting is unconstitutional without first going through the initiative process. It also requests an injunction barring Florida officials from implementing statutes that claim to authorize sports betting outside of tribal lands.
Robert Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, said the lawsuit contains multiple defects, noting the identity of the group Protect the Constitution is unclear. The complaint also fails to explain what injury the group’s members sustained as a result of the tribe’s online sports betting, Jarvis said.
“The complaint is going to get tossed,” he told the Florida Record, adding that the description of the plaintiff is “extremely cagey.”
And even if the plaintiff could establish standing in the case, winning on the merits would be difficult, he said. Sports betting is not covered by Article 10, Section 30 of the state constitution because it was not a typical casino game as defined by the initiative Florida residents approved in 2018, according to Jarvis.
And, in any event, the language in the constitution would not apply to the Seminole Tribe because under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), all the tribe would need to move forward with sports betting is a compact with the state, he said.
“At the end of the day, this case is going to end up at the Florida Supreme Court,” Jarvis said, adding that it’s unlikely the high court would up-end a compact the governor approved that is now a cash cow for the state.
Another problem for the plaintiff is that the tribe in this instance would be a necessary party to the lawsuit, which currently only names the gaming panel and multiple commissioners as defendants.
But the complaint maintains that sports betting should be considered a typical casino gambling activity as defined within Amendment 3.
“Since at least 1992, the federal government – in the regulation cited by the text of Amendment 3 – has defined Class III casino-style gaming to include ‘sports betting,’” the lawsuit states. “... Thus, ‘sports betting’ falls within Amendment 3’s expansive scope.”
