Gamblers will be able to place sports, craps and roulette bets at the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s six casinos starting in December, including at its Hard Rock property in Tampa, tribal officials announced Wednesday.
Sports betting has been in limbo for two years in Florida amid a legal battle over the carrying out of a $2.5 billion gambling deal between the Seminole Tribe and the state.
The Seminoles said they are moving forward with in-person sports betting and the new casino games after a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week gave them the green light to proceed. What remains to be determined is whether the Seminoles will relaunch an online sports betting app that would allow Floridians to wager anywhere in the state.
“This is a historic milestone that immediately puts Florida in the same league with the world’s great gaming destinations,” said Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and Chairman of Hard Rock International.
The sports betting issue, though, remains in litigation with a pending lawsuit before the Florida Supreme Court and a potential full-blown appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The tribe had no update Wednesday on its plans to offer online sports betting, said Gary Bitner, a Seminole Tribe spokesman. In 2021, the Seminoles briefly launched a sports betting app but stopped accepting wagers after a court ruling.
The new casino betting will launch at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa on Dec. 8.
In South Florida, they will start on Dec. 7 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood, and Seminole Casino Coconut Creek.
They will launch Dec. 11 at Seminole Casino Immokalee, near Naples, and Seminole Brighton Casino, on the northwest side of Lake Okeechobee.
In a statement, Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the announcement.
“The Seminole Tribe of Florida’s new initiative will create jobs, increase tourism, and provide billions in added revenue for our state,” he said.
The gambling expansion is expected to generate more than 1,000 new jobs, Allen said. The launch is dubbed “A New Era in Florida Gaming” and will be marked with “star-studded” celebrations at the casinos, tribal officials said.
The 2021 gambling pact brokered by DeSantis allowed the Seminoles to offer sports betting, including online wagering through computer servers on tribal lands. It included three new casinos on tribal property in Broward County and the ability to offer craps and roulette.
In exchange, the Seminoles agreed to pay $2.5 billion to the state over the next five years and potentially billions more in the following years.
Two competing gambling operators — West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. — filed a federal lawsuit challenging the gambling pact, arguing it would allow gambling off tribal lands in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. A separate lawsuit before the state Supreme Court focuses on whether sports betting violates Amendment 3, which requires voters to approve gambling expansions.
The litigation remains to be resolved, and a rumored launch of online sports betting in the coming weeks by the Seminole Tribe would likely draw a swift response trying to stop it from taking effect, said Daniel Wallach, a gaming law attorney.
The legal dispute focuses on whether the Seminoles can offer online sports betting with wagers being placed off tribal lands, he said.
“We don’t know what the final outcome is going to be,” Wallach said. “There are several more innings left to be played in the judicial arena.”
Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.
