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SportsTranscript
00:00The landmark ruling today by the Supreme Court stating that the Seminole Tribe of Florida
00:07will continue to be able to operate sports betting as the sole operator in the state
00:13of Florida through 2051.
00:16So this West Flagler group that has been petitioning and filing and spending as we bring in Mike
00:22Mazzio, it looks like it was all much ado about nothing.
00:25All this money that they spent, at least for the time being, looks like it was money poorly
00:29spent.
00:30Now, Mike, the only thing is that we don't know really where this money was coming from
00:33anyway from West Flagler.
00:34There's a lot of speculation on that, by the way, from other entities in the state, so
00:39to speak, that didn't want even gambling at all in Florida.
00:45But needless to say, the ruling does mean that the Hard Rock app's not going away any
00:49time soon.
00:50And I think what was really more interesting for me to see some of the things that came
00:54out of it, which is iGaming in 2026, and even a potential framework for the state of
01:00California in the future as well.
01:02So once again, thanks for coming on the show to talk about this pretty big ruling today.
01:05Yeah, Craig, thank you for having me.
01:08Like you said, a lot of legal experts we talked to leading up to this Supreme Court ruling
01:13had thought all along that West Flagler's petition was going to be denied, which was
01:17the case.
01:18We saw Justice Kavanaugh, he would have granted it.
01:21He had talked about that equal protection argument.
01:24So obviously that's what he would have gone on.
01:26Obviously his contemporaries in the Supreme Court did not agree.
01:30And so this West Flagler challenge, which has been what, years, months, feels like forever,
01:36is coming to an end.
01:37Perhaps they find another route to try to challenge it.
01:39But for now, this 30-year seminal compact through 2051 is in place.
01:46And so if you're in Florida, which you are, Craig, you can make that online sports bet
01:51through your phone, and then it goes through servers that are based in tribal land.
01:54That was the challenge by West Flagler.
01:56That's now over.
01:57So Hard Rock has this monopoly on Florida sports betting through 2051.
02:02What's next in terms of potentially adding more operators?
02:05We talked to Jim Allen, I believe in April, in Atlantic City.
02:08And his sentiment was, I haven't said no to FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, and MGM potentially
02:14joining the market.
02:15Could there be some sort of revenue-sharing agreement, which is obviously what the Seminoles
02:18have with the state, and what a state like New York, 51% you pay to the state government,
02:25would you pay the Seminoles a certain portion of your revenue?
02:29That certainly could be the case in Florida here.
02:32So we'll see what happens.
02:33Like you said, is iGaming coming?
02:35Are there other states that could jump in on this?
02:38We haven't done enough reporting on California.
02:39Certainly that does make sense.
02:41We'll kind of see what stakeholders and tribes have to say about that, Craig.
02:44I think that's, like you said, that's the next step is, can other states use this framework
02:48for online gaming or sports betting?