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West Flagler Associates ends years-long legal battle over sports betting with Seminole Tribe

FLORIDA RECORD

Thursday, November 21, 2024

West Flagler Associates ends years-long legal battle over sports betting with Seminole Tribe

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Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming, said the agreement would promote collaboration among the state's gaming interests. | Hard Rock International

A group of pari-mutuel business involved in casino gambling and racetracks has ended its long-running litigation against the Seminole Tribe of Florida over mobile gambling rights and the legality of the tribe’s gaming compact with the state.

 West Flagler Associates LTD and associated companies said in a news release this week that they had entered into an agreement with the tribe, pledging to refrain from any future legal actions regarding the tribe’s gambling operations in Florida. The parties have also agreed to a new partnership in which the tribe will promote Jai Alai wagering on its Hard Rock Bet app, with a launch date expected sometime early next year..

The Seminole Tribe manages six Florida casino complexes, including the Seminole Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos in Tampa and Hollywood.

“This is truly a win-win agreement for the Seminole Tribe and West Flagler,” Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming, said in a prepared statement. “This agreement establishes a relationship of collaboration among the Seminole Tribe and West Flagler in the state of Florida. 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.”

Robert Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, has followed the litigation between the parties closely and has said repeatedly that the Seminole Tribe’s legal arguments were on solid legal ground.

“In the end, the only people who got rich were, as we said all along, West Flagler’s attorneys!” Jarvis said in an email to the Florida Record.

Isadore Havenick, who has served as vice president of the Magic City Casino in Miami, said the pari-mutuel companies were looking forward to a cooperative approach on gaming issues.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with the Seminole Tribe in support of their gaming operations in Florida and to promote Jai Alai, which has been a critical component of Florida’s gaming industry since the 1920s,” Havenick said. “We are proud that Jai Alai will be featured on the Hard Rock Bet app, and we look forward to developing a strong partnership with the Seminole Tribe.”

The Havenick family owns West Flagler Associates, whose locations include a poker room sports and entertainment venue in Bonita Springs.

The litigation between the gambling interests in Florida has taken place in both federal and state courts, but recent court decisions went against West Flagler. In June of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court left in place an appeals court ruling that upheld the gaming compact between Florida officials and the Seminole Tribe.

Critics had argued that the state government exceeded its authority under the state constitution to enter into the compact, which facilitated statewide mobile sports wagering. Attorneys for West Flagler had also said that the Seminole wagering app essentially allowed gaming statewide rather than properly keeping the gambling on Seminole lands.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case upheld the validity of the Seminole compact. In addition, a state Supreme Court decision in March rejected a West Flagler petition seeking to stop the Seminole Tribe’s operation of mobile sports betting. The court did so by concluding that the type of writ it sought was not the proper course to challenge the constitutionality of a state law governing the compact.

In February, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a rule that said such compacts could include language that addresses statewide remote wagering.

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