The gaming compact between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the state gives the tribe exclusivity over several segments of the Sunshine State gambling industry.
The deal gives the tribe exclusivity over most casino games, as well as online sports betting. Consequently, the Seminoles operate six Class III gaming operations. They are the only operator of Class III gambling in the state. Their properties include two nationally renowned casino resorts, Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood and Seminole Hard Rock Tampa.
The most recent iteration of the Florida gaming compact was negotiated in 2021. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Seminoles agreed to terms, which would allow the tribe to operate the only legal online sportsbook in Florida and add craps and roulette to their six casinos.
In exchange, the pari-mutuels also received some leniency on which house-backed games they were allowed to spread. Thanks to the deal, real-money online casino gaming is the only industry missing from Florida.
Legal battle surrounded the 2021 compact
Despite the gaming expansion, the current tribal-state gaming compact was the subject of lengthy and sometimes contentious litigation.
Once the legislature passed, and the federal government approved the compact through inaction, the ownership group of two pari-mutuels filed suit over the deal. West Flagler Associates, which owned Bonita Springs Poker Room and Magic City Casino, claimed the sports betting model violated federal standards.
Despite the lawsuits, the Seminole Tribe launched its online sportsbook in November 2021. Just a few weeks later, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed with West Flagler. Friedrich said the compact, which allowed the Seminoles to accept sports wagers statewide, violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
Thus, the compact was null and void, and the Seminoles were forced to shutter the Hard Rock Bet online sportsbook.
But the Seminoles and the federal government appealed the ruling. In June 2023, the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the decision that invalidated the compact. Just like that, the compact was the law of the land again. West Flagler tried to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court refused to hear the case.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
Before there was a compact between the Seminole Tribe and Florida, two tribes in California challenged state and local efforts to close down bingo and card game facilities on tribal lands. The landmark tribal sovereignty case, California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the tribes in early 1987.
The holding that states could not intrude onto tribal land and enforce state gaming law prompted Congress to act.
Led in the Senate by Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the legislature passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), and the legislation was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in Oct. 1988.
The birth of the compacting process
Under IGRA, federally recognized tribes could conduct Class II games like bingo and non-banked card games on tribal land without having to negotiate with a state. That said, the tribes did need to adopt a “gaming ordinance” approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission.
Class II gaming allows tribal governments to operate without state approval. However, the same is not true for Class III gaming which includes casino-style gambling and sports betting. According to IGRA, the tribes have to negotiate a gaming compact with their home state that lawmakers must ratify. Beyond that, the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs likewise has to approve the compact. After receiving such federal approval, the compact becomes official upon its publication in the Federal Register.
Such compacts are subject to several restrictions. One is that the tribes can only offer games that are legal in the state. Another is a requirement that tribes and states negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement regarding what games the tribes can offer.
These agreements have typically meant that a tribe agrees to share some revenue with states, which cannot otherwise tax tribes, in exchange for some type of exclusivity. The revenue-sharing agreements vary widely from tribe to tribe and from state to state. That said, in all cases both the tribes and their states stand to benefit from the tribes being able to offer casino gambling on their lands.
A trip to the Supreme Court and Florida’s first tribal-state compact
Even before the Supreme Court decision that led to IGRA, the Seminole Tribe had been actively pursuing gaming in Florida. During the late 1970s, the tribe squared off against the Broward County Sheriff in federal court and then the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals over a bingo facility operated on Seminole territory, and the Tribe prevailed.
Following the passage of IGRA, the Seminole Tribe requested the state of Florida enter into negotiations to enable the tribe to offer Class III gaming in the state. Then-Gov. Lawton Chiles refused, and the tribe sued.
The case worked its way up to the Supreme Court. In 1996, the Court held that Congress could not abrogate the state’s sovereign immunity, thereby subjecting them to lawsuits from entities within the state. This could have been a major blow to IGRA, but the statute has persisted. The following year, the Seminole Tribe assumed full control of gaming operations on their Hollywood reservation.
In 1999, the tribe broke ground on the Coconut Creek and Brighton casinos. Two years after that, they did the same for the massive Hollywood Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. By 2004, the Tribe opened their Hard Rock property in Tampa.
Following about 20 years of back-and-forth, the US Department of the Interior approved the first gaming compact between then-Gov. Charlie Christ and the Seminole Tribe on June 24, 2010.
The 2010 deal allowed the Seminoles to offer slot machines, banked card games, and poker. The compact excluded craps and roulette, however, as those games aren’t otherwise authorized by Florida law. In exchange, the tribe would send more than $200 million each year to the state.
Disagreements between Seminoles and Florida over exclusivity
The 2010 compact’s exclusivity on banked card games expired in 2015. Since the state did not immediately renew it, the Seminole suspended payments to the state.
A highly public battle ensued over the airwaves of Florida television and radio as both sides sought to win over public opinion. Eventually, then-Gov. Rick Scott reached a deal with tribal representatives. However, the new agreement would not be ratified quickly. Eventually the impasse ended and the agreement was restored in 2018 as were tribal payments to the state.
However, less than a year later the agreement once more went awry. In May 2019, Marcellus Osceola Jr., chairman of the Seminole Tribal Council, notified Gov. Ron DeSantis that the tribe would again suspend revenue payments to the state until Florida. The payments would not resume, said Osceola, until Florida stopped other properties such as the commercial pari-mutuels from offering games over which the tribe had exclusivity.