DraftKings, FanDuel Plan to Gather Enough Signatures for Florida Expansion Nears Crucial Deadline
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The clock is ticking on two efforts to expand nontribal sports betting in Florida.
One proposal would permit national online bookmakers such as DraftKings and FanDuel to offer statewide mobile sports betting.
These two publicly traded companies have spent about $27 million combined to collect enough valid signatures to put their plan before voters on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Another effort, supported by Las Vegas Sands, would allow the international resort company to open a casino in Jacksonville on the state’s Atlantic coast near the Georgia line. According to published reports, Las Vegas Sands has contributed about $50 million to gather the required signatures to get its initiative on this year’s ballot.
With a Feb. 1 deadline fast approaching, both proposed initiatives apparently are short hundreds of thousands of signatures.
Bookmakers’ Representative ‘Confident’ In Getting Enough Signatures
By late last week, the proposal to allow popular, band-name online bookmakers to operate in Florida had collected 285,133 of the 891,589 signatures needed by Feb. 1, according to state totals cited by Vixio Gaming Compliance. The February deadline gives state officials time to verify signatures for the November election.
Christina Johnson, a spokeswoman for the DraftKings-FanDuel effort, told Vixio a large number of signatures continue to be validated, while signature-gatherers are still out in the field collecting more.
Johnson represents Florida Education Champions, the political action committee funded the two national online bookmakers.
“We are confident we will have enough signatures to meet the Feb. 1, 2022, deadline,” she said.
In addition to letting Floridians download apps like the ones offered by DraftKings and FanDuel, the ballot measure would allow sports betting at professional sports venues and pari-mutuel facilities, according to Vixio.
Judge Rules Against Hard Rock Sportsbook App
The only previous mobile sports betting allowed in Florida, approved in a compact with the tribe and state last spring, had been the Seminole Hard Rock Sportsbook app. That app was launched in November.
However,Within weeks, the app was discontinued in a legal dispute.
Not long after the launch, a federal judge ruled the app is illegal under a requirement that tribal gaming takes place on tribal land.
The judge ruled it is a “fiction” to claim mobile sports betting anywhere in the state was occurring on tribal land just because that’s where the computer servers were located to process the bets.
Las Vegas Sands Wants North Florida Casino
The ballot initiative back by Las Vegas Sands would allow full casino games in North Florida pari-mutuel cardrooms that spend at least $250 million to upgrade the properties, according to Vixio. This would include a plan by the company to open a casino in Jacksonville.
Right now, only the Seminole Tribe operates Las Vegas-style casinos in Florida.
The Las Vegas Sands’ PAC, Florida Voters In Charge, had collected 425,523 signatures by late last week. With fewer than three weeks to go, the PAC needs a total of 891,589 valid signatures.
In a multi-million-dollar public-awareness campaign, the tribe is attempting to stop efforts to expand nontribal gaming in Florida by urging voters not to sign the ballot measures, Florida newspapers have reported.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida recently made news by spending almost $1.1 billion to buy the Mirage hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
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