Tribal Sports Betting Under Siege in Washington State

When the federal courts negated the new Indian compact between Florida’s Seminole Tribe and the state of Florida late in 2021, it served as a warning that other compacts could get challenged. Many of the current Tribal compacts give Tribes exclusive rights to offer casino and sports gambling options within their respective states. This refers to states like Washington, California, and aforementioned Florida.

Gaming company Maverick Gaming LLC has launched a formal federal lawsuit in the state of Washington. Maverick owner Eric Perrson has made clear that allowing the state’s Tribes the exclusive rights to offer sports betting to state residents gives the Tribes an unfair competitive advantage.

Maverick has a substantial vested interest in the Washington gambling industry. They own and operate 19 of the 44 cards rooms that have been licensed by the state. It’s with noting the company has made prior efforts to get the right to offer retail casino games but to no avail due to the enforcement of the current Tribal compact.

In the current federal lawsuit, Maverick is being represented by attorney Ted Olson. Olson is the same attorney of record who led the successful challenge of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) by the state of New Jersey. The PASPA was the law that prevented states other than Nevada from being able to legalize sports betting for its residents.

In a press release, here is what Persson had to say about Maverick’s actions: “I think there’s a big gap between the judiciary and the legislative system,” Persson said. “And I think that as that gets clarified and the legislators understand that IGRA is being applied wrongly in the state of Washington, I think they’re going to engage us. And to me, this is just a logical next step.”

Perrson has made clear that he is looking for a result similar to what happened in Florida. In that ruling, the Seminole was denied exclusive rights to offering sports bets online and its retail casinos. It’s with noting that the Seminole’s Hard Rock Cafe Casino property was forced to stop taking sports bets one month after opening its sports betting windows.

BetMGM Set to Go Live in New York

On January 9, 2022, online sports betting went live in the state of New York. On that historic day, four major U.S, online/mobile sports betting operators started taking mobile sports bets. Those four operators were Caesars Sportsbook, Fanduel, DraftKings, and Rush Street Interaction (BetRivers brand).

In December of 2021, the New York Gaming Commission approved two groups consisting of nine total mobile operators for licensing. The four aforementioned operators were the first ones to receive their sports betting licenses.

Top U.S. mobile sports betting operator BetMGM has officially received its license and will begin accepting mobile bets on Monday, January 17, 2022. New customers will be eligible to receive a 100% risk-bonus bet based on the amount of the first live bet they make through the BetMGM mobile app.