FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Seminole Tribe of Florida and a group of businesses that operate racetracks and poker rooms have settled a years long legal dispute over whether the Seminole Tribe should have exclusive rights to online sports betting in Florida, the tribe announced Monday.
The Seminole Tribe, along with West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., have entered into a comprehensive agreement where the companies have agreed to end litigation against the tribe’s gaming operations and instead will begin a new partnership to offer Jai Alai waging on the tribe’s Hard Rock Bet app.
“Rather than engaging in years of additional litigation, this agreement will allow the parties to work together to promote Jai Alai, which has played an important role in Florida’s gaming landscape for nearly 100 years,” Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen said in a statement.
The companies had previously argued that the compact gives the tribe a sports betting monopoly in the nation’s third-most populous state and that the U.S. Department of Interior wrongly approved the compact even though it violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which requires that gambling occur on tribal lands.
