A New Era in Florida Gaming, A Win For Election Integrity - Top 3 Takeaways – November 2nd, 2023
- “A New era in Florida gaming”. That’s what the Seminole Tribe and the Seminole Hard Rock will celebrate starting December 7th when the Tribe is finally set to take next steps with 2021’s Seminole Compact which was agreed to by Governor DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe but that has been through a roller coaster ride of litigation since then. While outstanding legal challenges remain it’s clear based on Wednesday’s announcement that the Tribe has hedged its bets on the remaining legal challenges. Between December 7th and the 11th, at all six Seminole Casino locations in Florida, it’ll be game on with craps, roulette and sports betting. And with an expectant boom in betting is an immediate job boom at the Seminole properties. According to Seminole gaming CEO Jim Allen, over 1,000 new jobs will be added and on that note Governor DeSantis had this to say: The Seminole Tribe of Florida’s new initiative will create jobs, increase tourism, and provide billions in added revenue for our state. I was proud to work with the Tribe on our historic Gaming Compact and I look forward to its full implementation. Now the catalyst for this change was something I referenced just last week in my top three takeaways when I said that sports betting in Florida was... One step closer. Quoting myself...There’s been a new development and the takeaway is that in fact sports betting in Florida is one step closer to being a permanent reality than it was previously. Like all of the other legal wranglings and rulings there’s a big ‘ole but attached to it that requires a little explaining. The news involves the lawsuit filed by parimutuels in federal court to attempt to stop the Seminole Compact, and specifically sports betting as outlined in that Compact. Recently, when a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Seminole Compact, the parimutuels appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court received the appeal, they placed a stay on the compact...meaning that the Seminole Tribe was once again unable to legally offer sports betting until they’d first considered the facts of the case. After having now considered those facts they’ve lifted the stay. That means that as of now the Seminole Tribe could once again crank up the app and offer sports betting at any time if they choose to. And clearly, they’ve now chosen to. But as I mentioned at the onset, they’ve chosen to...
- Hedge their bets. And the hedge is that they’re only launching sports betting and the other games enabled by the Compact at their physical locations. That’s almost certainly due to something I also pointed out last Friday when speaking of the Compact’s prospects before the United States Supreme Court. As mentioned... If there’s one Justice to watch in this case, it’s Kavanaugh. While he sided with lifting the stay, he was by far the most skeptical in doing so. Kavanaugh stated that if the gambling deal allowed betting outside of tribal lands (which is does through the app) than it’s a violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. He also said that the Compact raises serious equal protection issues – which wasn’t really even on anyone’s legal radar as being a critical area of concern. That in a nutshell is why the Seminole’s Sports betting app, which was in operation for just a few weeks in November of 2021, is not being turned back on. If in the end they land a complete win with the United States Supreme Court, it’s easy to turn the app back on. By moving forward with all that the Seminole Compact has to offer onsite, they’re betting that the Compact principally will stand...and that there will be a flood of new traffic to their casinos. They’re not betting on app-based sports betting anytime soon. And speaking of stuff influenced by legal rulings...
- Another win for election integrity in Florida. In Federal Court U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor has dismissed a lawsuit backed by President Biden, and advanced by the ACLU seeking to end Florida’s signature verification law for voters. At the time Florida’s latest election integrity law was signed into existence the attention being paid to it was mostly what it allowed our governor who signed it into law to do...run for president without first submitting his resignation as governor of Florida to do it. Aside from that appearing, based on current polling, to have been a prudent thing for him to have done – the most effectual thing achieved with that law pertained to election integrity. Florida’s election integrity story is a sports equivalent of a worst to first type of storyline. As recently as 2018 incompetent and/or corrupt elections supervisors in Broward and Palm Beach led to election integrity issues galore. By 2020, with the first meaningful reforms put in place, in addition to the new elections supervisors put in place, the entire dynamic within our state changed. No longer were ballot boxes found in trunks of cars in airport parking lots. No longer were votes being illegally tabulated days after the election was over. Almost all votes were immediately tabulated as polls closed. As Florida has continued to tighten up the ship, we’re now 7th best in election integrity in the country and rising according to the Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard. This year's reforms which will be in place for next year’s elections include changes for...New voters: Those voting for the first time in Florida who have yet to obtain a state-issued ID or have yet received a Social Security number, will have to vote in person. 3rd Party Voter Registration Groups: Every 3rd party voter registration organization must reregister with the state for every cycle they participate in and must turn in all voter registration applications within 10 days (down from 14). Signature Verification: Mandatory education on signature analysis for those involved in the signature verification process for vote-by-mail ballots. With another win in federal court for Florida’s election integrity law, it’s another win for election integrity in Florida which sets our state up for the 2024 election cycle with the strongest election integrity laws our state, or just about any state has ever had.