The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to deny cert in the West Flagler Associates’ case has the attention of James Siva.
The chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association says the ruling that continues to allow the Seminole Tribe to be the only Sunshine State entity to offer mobile wagering through Hard Rock Bet has tribes in the Golden State hopeful it could potentially use the same precedent to operate sports betting one day.
Siva said on an Indian Gaming Association podcast "The New Normal" that the tribes aren’t racing to that pursuit.
“I think a lot of people anticipate that we’re going to start having a push for a new initiative immediately,” Siva said. “We’re going to continue the same path that we’ve been doing the last few years. We’re going to move carefully, methodically. It’s opened up some new avenues for us to utilize and look at it with opportunities, but our timeline remains the same, even with this decision.”
Betting battle
The California tribes fought off two initiatives in 2023 to bring sports betting to the Golden State that weren’t advantageous to the state’s Indian nations.
Siva said the Flagler case gives California tribes a “lawful path,” but it also solidifies the stance that the tribes should continue to battle to keep sports betting companies like DraftKings and FanDuel from working around the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act through voters, which hasn’t worked, to take potential revenue from tribal nations.
“For us, the fight was always going to be worth it,” Siva said. “We were never going to back down from these guys. It gives us something else to lean on.”
How long will that fight to have tribes involved in gaming coming to a highly populated state last? Siva wouldn’t comment on when he thinks there could be California sports betting, but he confirmed it won’t be within the next year.
Applauding the decision
Joining Siva on the podcast were IGA executive director Jason Giles, IGA conference chairman Victor Rocha, and tribal gaming attorney Scott Crowell, and the group applauded the Flagler decision.
“We think it was a well-reasoned decision,” Crowell said. “What this does now is make clear that tribes can engage in state and local gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and don’t need to resort to or be at the mercy of state laws and state legislators in the way that mobile sports betting is going to be conducted.”
Of course, that comes with a caveat. The Supreme Court’s Florida sports betting decision was to not take up the case, allowing the Seminole Tribe to retain exclusivity.
The IGA knows that could only last for so long.
“Just because they leave it, it’s not necessarily a victory because that means somebody can come back at a later date under a different set of facts and challenge these legal precedents,” Giles said.
