TAMPA — Online sports betting returned to Florida Tuesday morning, although availability is still limited.
The Seminole Tribe, which currently holds exclusive sports betting rights in the state, relaunched its mobile app Tuesday with little fanfare and no warning. The app is available to customers with existing accounts who signed up before legal action temporarily shut them down in December 2021.
“The Seminole Tribe is offering existing customers in Florida limited access to test its Hard Rock Bet platform,” Seminole Tribe spokesman Gary Bitner said in an email Tuesday morning.
In late October, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted its hold on previous rulings that questioned the legality of the tribe’s growing sports betting venture. Days later, the tribe announced that in-person sports betting as well as craps and roulette would begin Dec. 7 at its three South Florida casinos and Dec. 8 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa.
At the time of this announcement, a Seminole spokesperson said there was no information regarding mobile sports betting.
The future of sports betting in the state is still being called into question by another Florida Supreme Court petition filed by parimutuel establishments. The lawsuit argues that the agreement between the Seminole Tribe and the state is illegal because Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 that required any expansion of gambling to be approved by voters.
There’s also the question of whether the mobile app is legal since it can be used anywhere in the state and doesn’t require bettors to be on tribal land.
Comments are closed.