“It is equally clear that the (Interior Department) secretary must reject compacts that violate IGRA’s terms.”Īlthough the compact deems sports betting to occur at the location of the tribe’s servers, “this court cannot accept that fiction,” Friedrich wrote. “Altogether, over a dozen provisions in IGRA regulate gaming on ‘Indian lands,’ and none regulate gaming in another location,” she wrote. The ruling centered on gamblers being able to place sports bets online from across the state, with the wagers run through computer servers on tribal property.
Department of the Interior, which oversees Indian gambling issues, signed off on the deal in August.īut in Monday’s 25-page decision, Friedrich ruled that the deal violates the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, or IGRA, which creates a framework for gambling activity on tribal lands. this spring, and approved by the Legislature during a May special session. Sports betting was included in an agreement, known as a compact, signed by the governor and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola, Jr.
District Judge Dabney Friedrich’s ruling invalidated a sports betting plan in one of the nation’s most highly sought-after markets and scrapped a deal negotiated by Gov. Calling it a “fiction,” a Washington, D.C.-based judge late Monday ruled that a deal giving the Seminole Tribe control of online sports betting in Florida violates a federal law that regulates gaming on tribal lands.
