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It is technically legal for Bovada to operate in Florida though they are not regulated by the state. While Bovada is good, there are better options available where payouts are made in just a few hours, not to mention more attractive lines. BetUS offers a 125% welcome bonus on your first three deposits. BetUS is now celebrating 25 great years.
Hard Rock Bet Joins the Party in Florida
In 2023, Hard Rock Bet debuted its sports betting app. The Seminoles had entered into an exclusive three-decade compact with the state of Florida. As stipulated in this arrangement, the Seminoles agreed to pay Florida approximately $20 billion, including $2.5 billion over the first five years of the agreement. The deal also authorized the Seminoles to offer craps and roulette at their casinos.
Needless-to-say to there are other gaming interests in the state and a few of them weren't going to sit down and allow the Seminoles to reap all the awards when it comes to the lucrative sports betting sector.
West Flagler is one of the parties that wants to see sports betting end in the state, or at least for it to join the party.
It, along with Bonita-Fort Myers Corp, sought Supreme Court review of an appellate court’s decision upholding the deal in Mid-February.
Both companies argue that the compact violates a federal law known as the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act because it authorizes gambling off tribal lands, such as by offering mobile sports gambling.
A federal district judge agreed with the tribe in 2021, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in June reversed her ruling. They also argue that allowing sports betting violates a state constitutional amendment requiring voter approval of gambling expansions.
From the Tampa Bay Times:
The sports betting part in the compact was used “as a backdoor around state constitutional prohibitions against online sports gambling conducted off tribal lands” and created “a sports gambling monopoly” for the tribe, the petition said.
“This question is exceptionally important not just for the people of Florida, but for the nationwide precedent it will set for other state-tribal compacts if the Court of Appeals’ affirmative answer is left undisturbed — as an end-run not just around state-law prohibitions on gaming off tribal lands, but also around Congress’ limitation of (the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act’s) federal imprimatur to gambling on tribal lands,” Hamish Hume, an attorney with the Boies Schiller Flexner firm, wrote.
We would note that sites like Bovada and BetUS have long pursued the Florida sports bettor. Prior to the Hard Rock Bet launch, Floridians had to rely on either local bookies or internationally licensed companies like Bovada and BetUS. Bovada is licensed in Antigua and BetUS is licensed in both the Netherlands Antilles and Costa Rica.
In between are a bunch of Daily Fantasy Sports sites that operate like sportsbooks by offering college player props and parlays but are based in the United States without licenses. They include PrizePicks and Underdog Fantasy. Those two companies were told by state regulators they must abandon the Florida market by March 1 (2024).
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
