The Supreme Court of Florida has thrown out a challenge of the state’s sports betting set-up, saying that the relief sought is more than what the legal tool used can do.
All seven justices concurred with the decision to deny the so-called “petition for a writ of quo warranto” aiming to undo an arrangement between Florida and its Seminole Tribe that provides the latter with control over retail and online sports betting in the Sunshine State.
In short, two Florida gaming firms and one of their executives argued that the sports betting-related provisions of the Seminole compact violated a section of the state constitution that requires voter approval to expand gambling.
BREAKING: The Florida Supreme Court has denied West Flagler's petition for writ of quo warranto which had sought to invalidate Florida's online sports betting law on state constitutional grounds. The Court did not reach the merits, instead declining to exercise jurisdiction. pic.twitter.com/wphTJp9oq6
— Daniel Wallach (@WALLACHLEGAL) March 21, 2024
West Flagler Associates Ltd., Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., and Isadore Havenick (vice president of both companies) were asking the Florida Supreme Court to declare that the law implementing the compact was unconstitutional and to shut down the Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock Bet online sportsbook.
It is the online sports betting that specifically irks the two parimutuels (the same agreement authorizes the tribe to offer craps and roulette), as they take issue with gambling off tribal lands enabled by a state-tribal compact. Nevertheless, their request for relief was turned away on Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court because of the mechanism the firms chose.
“Framed as it is, the petition presents nothing other than a challenge to the substantive constitutionality of the law ratifying the compact,” Justice Meredith Sasso wrote in the decision. “But quo warranto is not, and has never been, the proper vehicle to obtain a declaration as to the substantive constitutionality of an enacted law. For that reason, we deny the petition because the relief that Petitioners seek is beyond what the writ of quo warranto provides.”
The decision strikes down one of the legal challenges facing the sports betting status quo in Florida. While another effort is still pending before the federal Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., the dismissal on Thursday eliminates another source of legal uncertainty for the Seminole Tribe and its Hard Rock brand.
I can't get no relief
Florida sports betting has been under fire in the courts since 2021, when the West Flagler group persuaded a judge to throw out the federal government’s approval of the compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe. That led to the shutdown of Hard Rock Bet in Florida, but the online sportsbook reopened late last year after an appeals court reversed the earlier decision.
The West Flagler group is trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review that federal appeals decision. The companies also launched their bid before Supreme Court of Florida, which was shut down on Thursday.
Hard Rock and the Seminole now have Florida all to themselves, the most populous state with legal sports betting. While the West Flagler group is concerned about the effect event wagering will have on its business, the Florida Supreme Court was not persuaded to grant them relief.
“Ultimately, the relief that Petitioners seek is beyond what quo warranto provides,” Thursday’s decision says. “We have never used the writ to test the substantive constitutionality of a statute, and we decline Petitioners’ implicit invitation to expand the scope of the writ here. To do so would serve as an affront to an essential feature of quo warranto—that it is used to challenge the authority to exercise a state power rather than the merits of the action.”
