Welcome to

Floridians can officially place legal sports bets now that the Seminole Tribe has launched its Hard Rock Sportsbook app.

Sports betting was included in the new gaming compact reached with the tribe earlier this year and makes up $50 million of the Tribe’s $500 million annual payments to the state.

Sports betting in Florida could be short lived though.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed claiming the inclusion of sports betting in the deal constitutes an unconstitutional expansion of gaming.

However Representative Randy Fine, who chaired the House’s Gaming Committee during the special session, said he believes sports betting is here to stay no matter the outcome of the lawsuits.

“Cause once the cat’s out of the bag, you know it’s hard to put it back in. If people are using the Seminole sports betting product, it has to be turned off all of the sudden, there probably would be an outcry for us to come back and to try to fix that and I’m sure we would,” said Fine.

There’s also a citizen initiative circulating that seeks to put the question of outright legalizing sports betting on the 2022 ballot.

If passed, other companies like Draft Kings and FanDuel could enter the marketplace.

The Seminole Tribe would also no longer have to pay its $50 million sports betting share to the state.