Supreme Court Denies Stay Request in Florida Sports Betting Case
If you have been keeping track of the development of Florida sports betting and all of the legal issues, then you either have a headache, or are about to get one. While betting software development companies are out with the latest innovations to offer the sports betting market, operators in Florida are tied up in cases that prevents them from offering sports betting in the Sunshine State.
The latest development here, comes from the Supreme Court. The application for a stay of a lower-court ruling for the US Supreme Court to review was rejected by the SCOTUS. This could be another step closer to seeing the Seminole tribe-owned Hard Rock Bet in Florida to reopen.
If you look at the best sports betting websites, none of them are in Florida. This is because of the many legal issues surrounding sports betting. This has been ongoing for years. And we are yet to see the final stretch of the road here. Technically, there is no law legalizing sports betting in Florida. However, the Department of the Interior had a default approval of a gaming compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe to offer sports betting.
Florida Sports Betting and the Legal Conflicts
After much opposition, and a case filed, the Tribe shut down operations back in 2021. This was when a federal judge threw the approval of the compact which allows retail and online sports betting. That judgement was reversed early this year by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. But there are two gaming companies that are challenging the compact, applying for a review.
According to the Supreme Court, as long as the tribe offers on-reservation only gaming operations, then there are no problems. Other operators who want to offer to a larger customer base, of course, want the same opportunity in the state. Thus their opposition to this. And in this day and age, and the portfolio that a bookie pay per head service has, it really is practical to give easy betting access to people. This is exactly why online wagering is the most popular option in the country, if not the world.
Given the latest happenings, it will not be surprising to see more issues pop out, especially if the Hard Rock Bet reopens. If they do manage to go live with sports betting, then residents will have to travel to the premises of the retail sportsbook to be able to wager on sports.