Hard Rock Digital shutters Florida sportsbook app following court defeat

Hard Rock Digital has closed its Florida-facing sportsbook app after judges in the Sunshine State denied parent entity, the Seminole Tribe, a second stay to continue offering sports betting. Messaging on the Hard Rock Sportsbook app confirmed the “temporary suspension” of operations, with all bets, accounts and deposits suspended.

In a statement, Seminole Tribe spokesperson Gary Bitner said: “As a result of yesterday’s Appeals Court decision denying a temporary stay of the District Court’s decision on the 2021 Compact, Hard Rock Sportsbook will temporarily suspend operations of its mobile app in Florida. Account balances for all current players will be refunded as requested,” Bitner added. The closure follows a ruling delivered late on Friday evening in the US District Court of Columbia Court of Appeals in which circuit judges Rogers, Pillard and Walker rejected the Tribe’s appeal, suggesting it had not met the “stringent requirements” required to allow for a temporary suspension of a prior banning order. In a double blow, justices ruled that the Seminole Tribe, which is not directly a party in the lawsuit, be denied leave to participate in the case as a so-called ‘amicus curiae’ (friend of the court), something which would have enabled the Tribe to present arguments and file documentation. The Seminole Tribe had previously continued operation of its Hard Rock Digital sportsbook in Florida, despite the US courts ‘nullifying’ its new 30-year gaming compact with the state on legal grounds in November. US Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ordered the vacation of the 30-year compact on the grounds that it violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and the Wire Act. It followed the launch of a lawsuit against the state of Florida by two Florida-based pari-mutuel operators: West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corporation, which had claimed they would be financially damaged by the 30-year compact. However, since the initial ruling, the Hard Rock Sportsbook app has continued operation, despite sports betting effectively being illegal in the Sunshine State. In tandem the Seminoles have aggressively fought to preserve the right to offer sportsbook through the courts, losing an initial stay appeal on November 25. In its most recent stay appeal, the Seminole Tribe had launched an appeal on the grounds that it had already spent a “considerable” amount of money and time launching sports betting on November 9. Further, the Seminoles affirmed the presence of several third-party agreements, including those with five other pari-mutuel operators in Florida, agreements which had been placed in jeopardy with the ruling. All the while, the tribe has continued its lobbying campaign in Florida via its “Standing up for Florida” campaign, which recently hit the headlines after allegations were raised that the Seminole Tribe was utilising aggressive lobbying and blocking tactics against rival petitioning initiatives. Allegations includes paying petition gathering firms in Florida excessive amounts in exchange for exclusivity with the Seminole initiative, while separately paying workers to interfere with rival petitions. In addition, it has been alleged that the tribe are running an informal side petition effort, which is reportedly organised by a convicted voting fraudster. Indeed, the aggressive lobbying tactics have drawn a separate lawsuit from US casino operator Las Vegas Sands (LVS), which has its own lobbying initiative ‘Florida Voters in Charge’, in partnership with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Alabama. LVS is suing the tribe, alleging ‘tortious interference with business relationships’, through its campaign. “In addition to their coordinated harassment and intimidation campaigns, parties acting on behalf of the Seminole Tribe are ‘paying off’ contracted petition circulators as part of a scheme to ensure such circulators do not perform the tasks they have been contracted to provide to the Plaintiffs,” the suit states. The LVS suit highlights three specific examples of alleged payoffs being offered by representatives for the Seminole Tribe, in exchange for petitionee recruitment and encouragement for lobbying firms to switch allegiances to the Seminole campaign. “Employees of the Plaintiffs have been offered large sums of money by the Defendants to leave Florida altogether. “Such employees were told that as long as they stayed out of Florida and logged into the Seminole Tribe’s gaming portal periodically to prove that they were located outside of the State of Florida, they would continue to receive additional payments for the next several weeks. “The Defendants, and their agents, have even followed individuals contracted by the Plaintiffs to their hotels in an attempt to harass and harangue them into accepting the offered payoffs,” the suit adds. The LVS initiative is currently falling short of securing the required signatures to force its way onto the November 2022 ballot, something which the suit suggests is due to this interference. LVS is seeking damages from the Seminoles and an injunction preventing the Tribe and its agents from making any further intimidation attempts during the campaign. The case continues.