If the department takes no action on submitted gaming compacts within 45 days, they are deemed approved. That’s what happened in 2021 when Florida submitted its updated agreement with the tribe. West Flagler and its allies say Interior has a responsibility to deny the compact because it allows tribes to accept online bets placed anywhere in the state, not just on tribal land.
Interior said its responsibilities only stretch as far as gaming that does happen on tribal land, and that the off-reservation sports betting envisioned by the compact falls outside of its purview. Essentially, those activities were separately authorized by the actions of the governor and state legislature that are now at issue in the state supreme court proceeding.
The Interior Department said West Flagler’s federal case “lacks merit” and is unlikely to succeed and that critics of the tribe’s sports betting arrangement are better off taking their case to state courts.
“If the Florida Supreme Court concludes that the Florida Legislature’s authorization of the placement of wagers outside Indian lands is not permissible under the Florida Constitution, that would afford applicants the relief they seek,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote on behalf of the Interior Department. “That pending case provides the appropriate forum to resolve applicants’ claims based on the 먹튀검증 meaning of state law.”
