Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is quickly assembling the state’s new Gaming Control Commission despite the recent overturning of the Seminole Gaming Compact.
DeSantis Shapes New Gaming Commission
On Wednesday, the Governor announced that he would be appointing Professional Regulation Secretary Julie Brown as head of the 5-member panel. Other appointees included Michael Yaworsky and Charles Drago.
These individuals have all served on the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), making them perfect picks for the Gaming Control Commission.
The Gaming Control Commission was developed as a part of the Seminole Gaming Compact and, to many, was the driving force behind the gambling law’s approval.
Conditions For Appointments
DeSantis still has to pick two more members to join the commission and must do so by January 1, 2022. According to the gaming compact, the commission must be comprised of individuals with the following qualifications:
- A member with at least 10 years of experience in law enforcement and criminal investigations
- A member who is a certified public accountant with 10 years of experience in auditing and accounting
- A member must be an attorney who has practiced in Florida for the previous 10 years
Brown, Drago, and Yaworsky each fulfill one or more of these qualifications. It will be interesting to see the direction DeSantis chooses to go in for the final two appointees.
Still, the responsibilities of the Gaming Control Commission remain unclear. Florida sports betting went live for a brief 3 weeks in November. Residents were able to place bets on their mobile devices until operations came to a grinding halt.
On Monday, November 22, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled that Florida’s mobile betting measures voided the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
This law stipulates that all Indian gaming must occur on sovereign, tribal lands. Florida tried to circumvent this issue by hosting mobile gaming servers on the Seminole Reservation.
Federal Courts Suspend FL Betting
And while the state successfully navigated its first lawsuit in Tallahassee, Friedrich’s D.C. ruling threw everything out the window.
“When a federal statute authorizes an activity only at specific locations, parties may not evade that limitation by ‘deeming’ their activity to occur where it, as a factual matter, does not.”
S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich
The state continues to wait on a second opinion from an appellate court. Even so, Florida sports betting will stay at a complete standstill until further legal action is taken.
Bettors in the Sunshine State can still get in on the action via offshore sportsbooks. They’re legal, safe, and offer a diverse variety of odds and lines.
For more information on legal online sports betting, feel free to click any of our information tabs in the ribbon above.
Source: Tallahassee Democrat