Get A Grip — The Week In Sports Betting: All Eyes On Florida

It’s information overload everywhere, and there’s not time enough to sleep and eat and stay fully apprised of what’s happening on this crazy blue dot of ours (two out of three ain’t bad). Here’s the weekend Sports Handle item, “Get a Grip,” recapping the week’s top U.S. sports betting headlines, highlighting some fresh news, and rounding up key stories.

Top stories around our network this week

There could be millions of new sports bettors in action legally on NFL football games and other contests in the nation’s third-biggest state this fall. Then again, maybe not.

One can never with any certainty predict what judges will do or how parties that win and lose lawsuits will react. The case of West Flagler and Associates versus the U.S. Department of the Interior is Exhibit A, and as the case that will determine the feasibility of legal sports betting in Florida, it’s of bigger consequence to the sports betting industry than anything else currently pending in the nation’s courts.

A U.S. Court of Appeals panel in Washington, D.C., a week ago overturned a federal district judge’s decision and upheld the right of the Florida Seminole tribe to operate statewide digital sports betting through servers located on the tribe’s land. The viability of the Seminoles’ Hard Rock Digital platform in Florida had been on hold ever since court rulings against it in late 2021.

Rather than indicating sports betting can immediately become available to Floridians once more, the appellate court decision awaits a reaction from the parimutuels that brought the case due to the tribe’s state compact creating a monopoly for the Seminoles to control the new wagering. The plaintiffs could seek a new appellate court hearing or appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In describing the arcane world of court procedures and their timing, Sports Handle’s Jill R. Dorson wrote this week that Aug. 21 would be the earliest possible date that the Seminoles could relaunch in the state. But that’s only if no further court appeals are filed. New filings by West Flagler and Associates potentially could delay the availability by months, if not years. Thus far, the tribe has said it is waiting to determine its next step.

Rest assured that this is one piece of legal business that Sports Handle will be following closely, just as we cover all key developments in the sports betting industry, as stories below from the past week show. And for news from the broader gambling world, check out our partner site US Bets, including its weekly Double Down column and the latest Gamble On podcast.

Ohio: The tweaking state

Ohio lawmakers double sports wagering tax

Ohio first to try to ban bettors who threaten athletes

Opportunity awaits in Arizona

Three event wagering licenses soon to be up for grabs in Arizona

North Carolina’s just getting started

Meet North Carolina’s sports betting regulatory commission

Is greed good? Not in the smoking sense

Schuetz: Secondhand smoke as harmful as ever, but casinos still shrug

Let’s make a deal, everyone

FanDuel becomes Canadian Football League’s first authorized gaming operator

NFL, Genius Sports extend sports betting data partnership through 2027-28 season

Sportradar inks sports betting data agreement with South America’s CONMEBOL

Parallel lines of tribal families, betting

What do foster kids have to do with the future of sports betting?

The show must go on, and online

New Jersey set to extend online casino through 2028 after a week of negotiation

Who wants to be dealt in?

Will the World Series of Poker’s main event entry record fall this week?

It’s the offseason, but not really

NBA free agency period odds movement: It’s a waiting Dame

You can’t make this stuff up, or bet on it

Proposed Musk-Zuckerberg cage match a longshot for legal betting

Caesars live online in Puerto Rico

Caesars Sportsbook Thursday became the second digital wagering platform to go live in Puerto Rico, according to a company press release. Caesars is operating in partnership with Casino Metro, where patrons will be able to register for online accounts. Puerto Rico regulations require in-person registration for online wagering accounts.

Access to the Caesars app and sportsbook website is currently limited to legal Puerto Rico residents, though visitors will be able to begin registering later this summer. New customers who make a first wager of $50 or more will receive a $50 Bonus Bet token.

BetMGM, in partnership with Casino del Mar, was the first platform to go live last month, and retail sportsbooks at Casino del Mar and Casino Metro are currently operating. The Puerto Rico Gaming Commission last week announced the approval of an additional digital sports betting platform, IGT (Stadium/Winning), but it’s not clear when it will go live.

— Jill R. Dorson

Maverick appeals ruling in monopoly lawsuit

After a U.S. District Court judge in Washington state dismissed Maverick Gaming’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s tribal monopoly on sports betting, the card room operator swiftly pledged to plead its case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Maverick’s attorneys did just that on Monday, filing an opening brief with the court.

“We respectfully disagree with the district court’s decision to dismiss the case,” Maverick’s lead attorney, Ted Olson, said of February’s ruling in a press release. “The rule adopted by the court would entirely foreclose judicial review of any approval by the Secretary of the Interior of a Tribal-State compact. Federal law does not allow Tribes to insulate these federal actions from judicial scrutiny.”

Olson, the attorney who argued successfully for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn PASPA in 2018, filed a federal lawsuit on Maverick’s behalf in January 2022. His law firm, Gibson Dunn, recently lost an appeal to the  Supreme Court seeking to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act, in a case that employed some of the same arguments contained in Maverick’s complaint. Maverick has long maintained that it ultimately expects its case to be resolved by the Supreme Court.

— Mike Seely

Hard Rock opens Arizona sportsbook

More than a year after launching a digital sportsbook in Arizona, Hard Rock and the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise will open a Hard Rock retail sportsbook Saturday with Luis Gonzalez leading the festivities. Gonzalez, a five-time All-Star, drove in the game-winning run during Game 7 of the 2001 World Series for the only championship in Diamondbacks history.

Saturday’s opening will include a ribbon cutting, giveaways, and contests, and will take place in the revamped sports bar at Twin Arrows Casino Resort in Flagstaff, which is now outfitted with eight wagering kiosks and two teller windows. The Navajo Nation is one of 10 federally recognized tribes in Arizona to be awarded an event wagering license.

— Jill R. Dorson

Tweet of the week

NFL players deleting sports betting apps from their phones pic.twitter.com/0vJJwJ0eVh

— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) June 28, 2023

More of the most important, interesting stories

WHEN YOU LOSE, DRAFTKINGS SUCCEEDS: Higher holds boost DraftKings price targets [CDC Gaming Reports]

CONTRARIAN VIEW REGARDING SEMINOLE DECISION: I. Nelson Rose: Hiding an elephant in a mousehole [Gambling and the Law]

THE DINGERS WILL ALL BE LEGIT THIS TIME: MLB finally implements plan to curb Home Run Derby counting, timing mistakes [Action Network]

For the last two years, Home Run Derby miscounts have led to at least two players not advancing when they didn’t lose.

With the gambling world up in arms, Major League Baseball has a system in place so that won’t happen on Monday https://t.co/NNa9gXj6il

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 7, 2023

LET’S NOT FORGET ABOUT THE AGENTS: NFL, NFLPA have no specific gambling policy for agents [NBC Sports]

KENTUCKY NEARS THE HOME STRETCH: Kentucky to take up sports betting rules July 10 [WDRB]

A BIG QUESTION AROUND VEGAS: What does slowing Nevada gaming revenue mean going forward? [CDC Gaming Reports]