DC Circuit Court Denies One Florida Sports Betting Appeal

• An appeal to the ruling to shut down-regulated sports betting in Florida was denied by the DC Circuit Court.
• The main appeal remains stagnant and will be reviewed in 2023.
• No new compact can be brought forth in Florida until the appeal is dealt with.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida’s regulated sports betting market will remain in limbo until a new compact can be drawn between the state and the Florida Seminole Tribe.

No new compact can be discussed as the initial ruling to shut down the original compact is still being appealed. One appeal was recently dismissed by the DC Circuit Court.

The appeal that was dismissed was actually a requested dismissal that was granted by the Court of Appeals. The main, West Flagler Associates vs. Haaland, is still pending and will not be reviewed until at least 2023.

What This Means For Florida Sports Betting

The Florida sports betting market has attempted to regulate betting through a state vote, but those in favor of the vote failed to gain enough signatures to be added to the 2022 November ballot.

This set the market back at least another two years should regulate betting go through a citizen vote. Additionally, the current dismissed appeal now leaves everything on the back of the main appeal.

Local Florida players got a brief taste of a regulated market with the launch of the Hard Rock Sports app in October 2021 but the market was halted in November 2021 following the court ruling against the compact.

With no compact being worked on and campaigners failing to get sports betting on the November ballot, the legal sports betting market in Florida will remain on hold for the foreseeable future.

Will The Appeal Work?

The reason the compact was initially ruled against by the Circuit Court was due to the allowance of statewide online sportsbooks. The Hard Rock Sports app was accessible from everywhere despite the compact only granting betting on tribal lands.

While advocates argued that since the servers running the sportsbook were all located on tribal lands, therefore, making mobile betting legal by law, Judge Dabney Friedrich was not convinced.

The appeal would aim to convince the court that the compact was in fact following the law and there has been no indication that the court will be convinced.

It is optimistic to assume that a new judge would disagree with Judge Friedrich but Florida lawmakers are perusing the appeal with confidence.

News tags: DC Circuit Court | Florida | Florida Seminole Tribe | Ron DeSantis | Seminole | Seminole Tribe of Florida | Tallahassee | Washington DC