Supreme Court Backs Seminole Tribe's Florida Sports Betting

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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.

00:07A landmark ruling today by the Supreme Court stating that the Seminole Tribe of Florida

00:11will continue to be able to operate sports betting as the sole operator in the state

00:17of Florida through 2051.

00:20So this West Flagler group that has been petitioning and filing and spending as we bring in Mike

00:27Mazzio looks like it was all much ado about nothing.

00:30All this money that they spent, at least for the time being, looks like it was money poorly

00:34spent.

00:35Now, Mike, the only thing is, is that we don't know really where this money was coming from

00:38anyway from West Flagler.

00:39There's a lot of speculation on that, by the way, from other entities in the state, so

00:44to speak, that didn't want even gambling at all in Florida.

00:49But needless to say, the ruling does mean that the Hard Rock app's not going away any

00:54time soon.

00:55And I think what was really more interesting for me to see some of the things that came

00:58out of it, which is iGaming in 2026, and even a potential framework for the state of California

01:05in the future as well.

01:06So once again, thanks for coming on the show to talk about this pretty big ruling today.

01:10Yeah, Craig, thank you for having me.

01:13Like you said, a lot of legal experts we talked to leading up to this Supreme Court ruling

01:18had thought all along that West Flagler's petition was going to be denied, which was

01:22the case.

01:23We saw Justice Kavanaugh.

01:24He would have granted it.

01:25He had talked about that equal protection argument.

01:28So obviously that's what he would have gone on.

01:31Obviously his contemporaries in the Supreme Court did not agree.

01:35And so this West Flagler challenge, which has been what, years, months, feels like forever,

01:41is coming to an end.

01:42Perhaps they find another route to try to challenge it.

01:44But for now, this 30-year seminal compact through 2051 is in place.

01:51And so if you're in Florida, which you are, Craig, you can make that online sports bet

01:55through your phone, and then it goes through servers that are based in tribal land.

01:59That was the challenge by West Flagler.

02:01That's now over.

02:02So Hard Rock has this monopoly on Florida sports betting through 2051.

02:07What's next in terms of potentially adding more operators?

02:09We talked to Jim Allen, I believe in April, in Atlantic City.

02:13And his sentiment was, I haven't said no to FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, and MGM potentially

02:19joining the market.

02:20Could there be some sort of revenue-sharing agreement, which is obviously what the seminals

02:23have with the state?

02:24And a state like New York, 51% you pay to the state government.

02:30Would you pay the seminals a certain portion of your revenue?

02:34That certainly could be the case in Florida here.

02:36So we'll see what happens.

02:38Like you said, is iGaming coming?

02:39Are there other states that could jump in on this?

02:42We haven't done enough reporting on California.

02:44Certainly that does make sense.

02:46We'll kind of see what stakeholders and tribes have to say about that, Craig.

02:49Like you said, that's the next step is, can other states use this framework for online

02:53gaming or sports betting?

02:55Yeah.

02:56I think what's fascinating is that my guess is, is you're going to hear that FanDuel and

03:00DraftKings are not interested in paying any fee to the seminal tribe because they want

03:04to have their own involvement in it.

03:07And then all of a sudden, Mike, I have a feeling someone is going to end up paying the tribe.

03:12I don't know what that percentage is going to be.

03:14And boy, will that be a precedent for all these other states that are looking at the

03:17tax rate as to what they end up paying.

03:20So a slippery slope, I think, for the future there.

03:23But needless to say, for Florida and for people who like to bet on sports, you have legalized

03:27sports betting.

03:28That is good news.

03:29That will continue.

03:30All right.

03:31Major League Baseball last week announced that one of their umpires, and by the way,

03:33a very good one, Pat Hoberg, is appealing a discipline issue for violating a betting

03:39policy that happened during spring training.

03:42Now I don't know more than you do, just to be clear on this, Mike.

03:45But what I saw in the release was appealing a discipline, and it wasn't specific here.

03:53So to me, using that word as opposed to like a suspension or a fine or anything else tells

03:58me that this potentially was very minor.

04:02But I suppose Hoberg just wants his name cleared completely of this.

04:06Is there any more color that you can add to what you see?

04:09I mean, this is reading between the lines a little bit to figure out exactly what's

04:13going on.

04:14Yeah, Craig.

04:15I think the one thing that they didn't say was that he did not bet on baseball, right?

04:19That kind of was the one thing that was not in this release.

04:22It seemed like the games he umpired, he did so with the utmost integrity.

04:27As you know, Craig, Pat Hoberg is the umpire that called a perfect game.

04:30The umpires, home plate umpires version of a perfect game in the 2022 World Series did

04:35miss a ball or strike call the entire game, which in this age with the robo ops and the

04:40tracker is almost unfathomable given we saw Angel Hernandez, all these other umps that

04:45always get grief, understandably for missing calls.

04:48Here's one of the best umpires in the game potentially being in trouble.

04:51Like you said, we don't exactly know what he did.

04:53You hope it's not a Shane Pinto situation where the NHL suspended him for 41 games and

04:58we still don't know what he did.

04:59So like you said, more to come here on Pat Hoberg.

05:02But clearly in baseball, it feels like we're flying a little too close to the sun.

05:06We've had Shohei Otani's interpreter.

05:08We've had David Fletcher being investigated for using that same illegal bookmaker, a minor

05:12league player now was a former major league player.

05:15The four minor league players, the San Diego Padres Pittsburgh Pirates infielder that was

05:20suspended for life.

05:21So yeah, it just, it's unfortunate again, these, these leagues want to talk about integrity

05:25all the time, but they're taking sportsbook partnership money and all these things just

05:29add up to where this industry doesn't want to go, obviously, which is like federal oversight

05:34or, you know, the industry just totally shutting down because, you know, if you go to the point

05:38where there's a team wide, you know, trying to throw games or something to that extent

05:43or a star player, we have seen Calvin Ridley in the NFL, but you know, something to Shohei

05:47Otani's extent, they can't afford.

05:48Yeah.

05:49The NBA is fine.

05:50Perhaps if, if John Tay Porter is receives a lifetime ban of reserve player, but you

05:54know, you get a, a key starter and all-star involved and that's where things change.

05:58So yeah, I mean, it's just something where the education needs to continue.

06:01We know all these coaches, players, staffers are getting education and, you know, unfortunately

06:06you have thousands of staffers and you only need one to go the wrong way and the whole

06:11industry looks bad.

06:12And then you have to deal with the narrative that you no longer can control.

06:14And I think for all these sports leagues, they can't control it anymore.

06:17And you see the major networks outlets writing about this stuff and none of it's good.

06:21Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely a story that continues because this keeps happening and

06:26we keep even the small stories continue to happen in baseball.

06:29And so you just hope that there's not a larger one that's legitimate out there.

06:33All right.

06:34Now a story of the bazaar on our show today here.

06:38And I hate to say it like this, but unsurprisingly involves Bernie Kosar.

06:43Bernie's been through it through the years.

06:45So here's one.

06:47So Bernie is saying now, why do I say Bernie?

06:50Bernie of course, from South Florida, played for the Hurricanes, played for the Dolphins.

06:54Very familiar with Bernie.

06:56Filing a lawsuit that says that he was forced to place a bet $19,000 of his own money by

07:08the big play network.

07:10And because he did that, the Browns organization let him go from doing their broadcast or pre

07:16and post or whatever he was doing a couple hundred grand.

07:20I'm going to need you to, to siphon through here a little bit here, Mike, because it seems

07:26to me, I mean, gosh, Bernie, I hate to say it, that if you feel like you're not, you're

07:30doing something that you shouldn't be doing, you can probably not do it.

07:32And by the way, with your own money, this is crazy one here, Mike, you're going to have

07:35to tell me what's at, what happened here.

07:37Yeah, Craig.

07:38So at the time he placed this bet and the NFL personnel cannot bet.

07:43And I think he thought he was a contractor, so maybe he could.

07:46He apologized at the time, said if I had won this money, it was all going to charity anyway.

07:51Now all of a sudden, you know, wants to get $850,000 from this big play network in this

07:56civil suit.

07:58And we'll see here.

07:59I mean, he basically said, as part of his contract with big play, he could make this

08:02bet and he wouldn't lose any money if the bet lost.

08:05Then all of a sudden the big play executive said, you have to bet.

08:08You have to bet with your own money as part of your contract.

08:10So he did it out of goodwill.

08:12His bet lost.

08:13I think the Browns shockingly lost to the Steelers, I believe it was.

08:18And so he was out the 19,000 and he's seeking, like you said, his $200,000 radio job, which

08:23he ended up losing as a result of this.

08:26They pulled him right off the air after the bet.

08:28And again, you can't make the same mistake as Bernie here.

08:31You can't bet if you're working for a team in radio, television, you can't bet.

08:36Right.

08:37So we'll see what comes of this, Craig.

08:38Yeah.

08:39I mean, but by the way, if you think that there's a chance that this could happen, you just

08:42don't do it.

08:43Right.

08:44Like you just say no.

08:45Right.

08:46Like you take it to another level.

08:48Real quick.

08:49We got about a minute to go.

08:50Charlie Baker, the head of the NCAA, with some comments on sports betting, wishing it

08:54stayed in Las Vegas.

08:55But, you know, this is going to be on deaf ears at this point, no?

08:59Yeah, I think he was governor of Massachusetts when it passed, was getting tax revenue.

09:04Now he's not getting tax revenue.

09:06There's no sponsorship deals with the NCAA after, you know, a senator stopped that.

09:11So, yeah, I mean, I think there's money to be in one place and not money in the other

09:15place.

09:16Fair enough, Mike.

09:17Thanks for coming on.

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