FLORIDA SPORTS BETTING PETITION COMES UP SHORT ON SIGNATURES

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

The status of legal sports betting in Florida continues to be a major topic of discussion. The Seminole Tribe’s efforts to offer legal betting ended up in the courts after a brief stint going live last year. More recently, an effort to take this issue to Florida voters came up short.

A political group called Florida Education Champions championed the cause for legal sports betting in the state through a constitutional amendment. This process involves a voter referendum on the ballot in November’s general election.

The group needed to gather at least 900,000 valid signatures from Florida residents to add their proposal to this year’s November ballot. As of Jan. 29, the total tally of signatures had only reached 472,927 according the state Division of Elections. This information was posted via that department’s website.

The two biggest financial supporters of this effort were FanDuel and DraftKings as the two biggest legal US-based sportsbook operators. FanDuel contributed close to $14.5 million to the effort. DraftKings upped the anti by giving the Florida Education Champions a donation totaling $22.7 million.

The proposal that was hopefully going to be put to a vote called for both retail and online sports betting throughout Florida.

In-state professional sports venues and pari-mutuel horse racing facilities were on the list for retail sportsbooks. Online betting would be available statewide through mobile sportsbook apps.

There is a possibility that this same group would pursue a ballot referendum in 2024. A group spokesperson, Christina Johnson, released the following statement:

“We will be considering all options in the coming months to ensure that Floridians have the opportunity to bring safe and legal sports betting to the state, along with hundreds of millions of dollars annually to support public education.”

Under the group’s plan, tax revenues from legal sports betting would have been earmarked for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. The money would be used to supplement public education throughout the state.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe came together on an amended gaming compact last April that added legal sports betting to the tribe’s gaming options. The US Department of Interior signed off on the new gaming compact and legal sports betting was launch last fall.

The run was brief after the legality of that compact was challenged through the courts. Opposing parties contended that the new compact violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IRGA). US District Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed with that stance and invalidated the entire amended gaming compact.

With the matter now stuck in the courts for the foreseeable future, the Florida Education Champions effort began to pick up steam for proponents of legal sports betting.

One of the big issues with the tribal gaming compact was with online sports betting through mobile apps. All legal tribal gaming needs to be conducted on tribal lands. The Seminoles’ plan booked all legal online bets through computer servers that were physically located on Seminole Tribe property.

While this system was approved through the amended compact with the state, Judge Friedrich added “this court cannot accept that fiction” as part of his ruling.

In a new development in the legal process, the US Department of the Interior has joined the Seminole Tribe in appealing the judge’s decision.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can read more about Dave here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab