A lawsuit claiming that a state agreement for the Seminole Tribe of Florida to provide online sports betting violated a 2018 constitutional amendment intended to restrict casino gaming was dismissed by a Leon County circuit court.
Protect the Constitution LLC, the plaintiff in the case, did not demonstrate that it has legal standing to pursue the challenge, according to Judge Jonathan Sjostrom’s ruling on Friday. Sjostrom gave Protect the Constitution till November 21 to submit a potential amended version even though he rejected the lawsuit.
Protect the Constitution is a Delaware corporation, according to the lawsuit, and each of its members “offers products in the state of Florida and has suffered harm, including reduced revenue, as a result of the legislation purporting to authorize ‘casino gambling’ throughout the state.” The members of Protect the Constitution were not named in the case.
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Sjostrom granted the state’s move to dismiss the action, stating that the lawsuit “fails to provide meaningful information regarding the identity, activities, location, business and business methods of its constituent members; it fails to allege facts to demonstrate standing.”
The fundamental constitutional questions brought up by Protect the Constitution were not decided by Sjostrom.
According to the 2018 constitutional amendment, it “ensures that Florida voters shall have the exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling” in the state. A citizens’ initiative vote was necessary “for casino gambling to be authorized under Florida law.”
According to the lawsuit, voters did not approve a contract between DeSantis and the Seminole tribe.
The agreement that Governor Ron DeSantis made with the tribe in 2021 is at the heart of the April lawsuit. The agreement, which was approved by the Legislature, permitted the tribe to take mobile sports wagers made from any location in the state, as long as the wagers were handled by servers located on tribal territory. This kind of gaming began in late 2023.
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