The Seminole Tribe has filed a lawsuit against DraftKings alleging the gambling company is operating an illegal sports betting business in Florida in violation of the Tribe’s exclusive compact with the state.
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The 72-page lawsuit filed Thursday in Broward County alleges DraftKings’ Florida operations violate state law and claims DraftKings CEO Jason Robins made public statements describing his company’s product as “functionally identical” to DraftKings’ sportsbook offerings in other states.
The Tribe operates Hard Rock Bet under a 30-year agreement, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and ratified by state lawmakers in 2021, which gives them exclusivity over sports betting throughout the state.
The suit claims DraftKings’ prediction market operates like a traditional sportsbook, and asks a judge to order DraftKings to stop operating it in Florida.
“Every wager that (DraftKings) now accept through their illegal sportsbook siphons away revenue that funds both the Tribe’s and Florida’s public programs and government services; diverts betting from Florida’s regulated system into an underground, unregulated, and outlawed book; and deprives the Floridian who places such a bet of the consumer protections guaranteed by Florida law,” the lawsuit states.
DeSantis was asked about the lawsuit and the Tribe’s compact at an event in Miami Thursday morning.
“They were given the purview on the sports betting, I have not read the thing I just heard about it this morning, but I think our agreement clearly contemplated that they would have the ability to run this in Florida,” DeSantis said.
NBC6 was reaching out to DraftKings for a statement on the lawsuit.
The legal challenge is the first test in Florida of how the state interacts with new online gambling marketplaces, including Kalshi and Polymarket, which have grown in prominence in recent years. The companies say they merely provide a platform for people to bet against other individuals and don’t operate like a normal sportsbook taking bets.
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That distinction, the companies have argued, they should be treated and regulated like a market, not a casino. Ads from the companies encourage people to “trade” on their platforms. The Trump administration has taken the same view, putting the companies under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
DeSantis said the clash over whether DraftKings, Kalshi, Polymarket and other platforms are gambling or “trading” will likely have to be resolved at the federal level.
“The question is that if you have a certain regime on sports gaming, and then the prediction markets come in, does that fall under that or do they just get to do it?” DeSantis said. “Ultimately, you are going to see federal decisions, probably at appeals and higher. Then I think you’ll probably see Congress do some things with respect to how that’s going.”
At stake are large payments the state receives as part of the compact, which the Tribe could suspend if its monopoly on sports betting is punctured.
In the most recent fiscal year that ended June 30, the state received $1.04 billion under the compact, more than $200 more than the previous year. And the amount is projected by state economists to grow in future years, driven largely by sports betting.
“Sports betting continues to grow at a significant rate in Florida, both as a share of all tribal gaming options and as a stand-alone activity,” state economists wrote in an August report outlining the new revenue forecast.
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