TALLAHASSEE – The Seminole Tribe of Florida filed suit Thursday in Broward Circuit Court against DraftKings, claiming the online platform is an illegal sports betting business in violation of state law.
The lawsuit alleges DraftKings operates a sports book in violation of the gaming compact between the Tribe and the state inked in 2021, which provides the Tribe a monopoly on sports betting 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.
Attempts to reach DraftKings representatives were not successful Thursday.
In the lawsuit, the Tribe asks the court to declare DraftKings’ sports betting activities in violation of state law, to enjoin them from operating further and to award damages and fees, including the “restitution and disgorgement of all profits, revenues and other ill-gotten gains (DraftKings) has derived from their illegal Florida operations.”
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.
The Tribe signed the compact with the state in 2021, which was approved by the Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis, which gave it a monopoly over sports betting in exchange for guaranteed payments to the state.
DeSantis appeared to side with the Tribe when speaking to reporters in Miami on Thursday.
“(The Tribe) were given the purview on sports betting,” DeSantis said. “I haven’t 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.”
But he added that 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 million 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.
