Florida on the Verge of Legal Sports Betting
It certainly hasn't been an easy road, but Florida looks as though it is on the cusp of finally launching its own legal sports betting platform. Momentum picked up steam last month when legislators agreed on a special session to discuss the merits of legalization for their state.
That special session took place this week and provided some pretty overwhelming results. The Senate passed a 30-year gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe by a 38-1 vote Tuesday and the House followed suit, approving the work Governor DeSantis did negotiating a new Compact by an overwhelming 97-17 vote.
If the momentum indeed continues, Florida will become the largest state in terms of population so far in the US to legalize a sports betting platform. 21.5 million citizens will gain the right to place a legal sports wager and the throng of Florida sports teams will directly benefit from legalization.
The Big Winner
There is no doubting that everybody wins with the decision to welcome a legal sports betting platform in Florida. From bettors to sports teams to state and local coffers that will benefit from much-needed tax revenue, quietly almost every aspect of the Florida society stands to gain from sports betting legalization.
But perhaps the biggest winner will be the Seminole Tribe that has traditionally held a monopoly over all forms of gambling in Florida and will continue to do so with legal sports betting falling on their lap. Tribal casinos as well as 35 pari-mutuel operators will gain the right to offer legal mobile sports betting. A percentage of their profits will go to the Tribes themselves and servers for such mobile wagering platform will be situated on tribal lands.
The Seminole Tribe in essence gets to keep their monopoly over betting in Florida and gains some assistance from legislatures which assisted in exponentially growing their wagering offerings.
Seminole Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. said of the deal: “Today, all the people of Florida are winners, thanks to legislative approval of the Gaming Compact between the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. It is a historic and mutually-beneficial partnership between the State and Seminole Tribe that will positively impact all Floridians for decades to come.”
It Won't be Easy
Lawmakers, regulators and others involved in the Tribal Compact negotiations and sports betting planning are expecting a fight before full-scale legal wagering goes ahead in Florida.
The U.S. Department of the Interior gets the final say in whether the negotiated Compact will get the green light in Florida and they have not yet signaled which way they are leaning.
Lawmakers like Rep. Sam Garrison weighed in saying: “It doesn’t take a master’s degree to know that there will be litigation.” Speaker of the House Chris Sprowls said: “I don’t think there’s any chance of doing a gaming deal to the size and scope that was negotiated by Gov. DeSantis without a legal challenge. You are navigating the icebergs of legal hurdles as you do this.”
In the Way
No all are happy about how the process of legalization played out. There are those that feel that the process was rushed, and that more consideration would be helpful. One such person was Rep. Omari Hardy who said:
“I will not say that if we ratify this compact the sky will fall, but there are some obvious issues with how we came to this compact and how it came to this body to be considered. I don’t know why we have to rush. Given the detail and that very few of us are experts … I think it takes a little more time than a few days in a special session. I think we could spend a little more time on this. I think we could get a little bit better deal on this, and this deal feels like we came to this deal rushed. …The compact that we are going to ratify is not the compact that will take effect.”
Then there are the legal questions ahead of the platform's launch. One has to do with the fact that mobile betting, in its current proposed form, will grant bettors in the state the opportunity to place a bet anywhere in the state, not just on Tribal lands, as the Compact states. Language around that inevitability will have to be cleared up.
Another potential legal stumbling block is the change in Constitution which requires voters to have a say. That would mean that legalization couldn’t go through without a question on the next election ballot that would come in November 2022.
The Chances
By all accounts, the chances of legal sports betting legalization in Florida remain strong. As mentioned, there will be some legal challenges and both the U.S. Department of the Interior and independent federal National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) still have to weigh in.
That said, legislative hurdles and the renegotiation of the Seminole Tribal Compact were likely the biggest hurdles for sports betting legalization to clear. Those have been accomplished.
So, Florida bettors will likely have to wait until after October 15 before placing their first legal sports bet. But the ball is rolling in Florida and it's rolling toward a positive conclusion for proponents of legal betting in the state.
