JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Online sports betting is back in Florida, at least for those who placed bets on the Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock Bet app back in 2021.
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The app silently relaunched statewide Tuesday morning.
The soft relaunch comes just five days after the Tribe announced it would begin offering sports betting at its six Florida casinos.
According to the Tribe, it is not yet available to new customers.
“The Seminole Tribe is offering limited access to existing Florida customers to test its Hard Rock Bet platform,” said Tribe spokesman Gary Bitner in an emailed statement.
The app originally launched back in 2021, after the new gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe was approved.
READ: Seminole Tribe leaders to begin sports betting at casinos starting in December
However, it was pulled down just one month later following a ruling issued by a federal judge that blocked the compact.
Gaming attorney Daniel Wallach explained after nearly two years of litigation and a series of court rulings in the Tribe’s favor, the compact was reauthorized, which paved the way for Tuesday’s relaunch.
“It was just a matter of time before the Seminole Tribe relaunched their sports book, at least the online version of it, because any reversal by a federal court would be in the US Supreme Court more than a year from now,” said Wallach.
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It’s not clear exactly when the app will become available to new customers, and as Wallach pointed out, there’s still a possibility online sports betting could be blocked once again.
“If the bets and the wagers are occurring outside of Indian lands and are deemed to be placed outside of Indian lands, that same act would be a violation of both Florida Amendment 3 and the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act,” said Wallach.
Wallach predicted West Flagler, the South Florida parimutuel operator that challenged the new Seminole gaming compact, is likely to petition the Florida Supreme Court for an emergency stay quickly in hopes of shutting online sports betting down.
That could mean the end of sports betting in a matter of a week or two, but Wallach said he believes such a request would likely be rejected and online sports betting will stick around for the long haul.
“At least at the present time, whether that’s days, weeks or months, sports betting is alive and well and probably looking good, but it’s not final yet,” said Wallach.
Should the compact survive the outstanding court challenges, Floridians can expect the Tribe to keep its monopoly on online sports betting for 30 years.
The State of Florida is expected to receive $20 billion over the course of the deal.
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