Florida’s Seminole Tribe once again finds itself in a situation where it legal to launch the Hard Rock Bet sports betting platform, but at least one lawyer familiar with the case says it is unlikely the tribe will do so.
The U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday afternoon denied West Flagler and Associates’ (WFA) request to stay a lower-court ruling, which means that in the eyes of federal law, the Seminoles are free to move forward with their platform. The denial, though, doesn’t preclude WFA, which owns two Florida parimutuels, from filing for a stay to keep the Seminoles offline in the Florida Supreme Court, nor does it mean that the cases that will decide the future of legal Florida sports betting have been decided.
“The denial of the stay by the U.S. Supreme Court is very good news,” a Seminole spokesman told via email. “The Seminole Tribe of Florida is heartened by this decision.”
West Flagler and Associates has publicly said that it plans to appeal its case against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) by Nov. 20, and a case in the Florida Supreme Court is in a holding pattern until Dec. 1, the deadline set for Gov. Ron DeSantis and the legislature to respond.