Following the federal decision to block the Seminole Tribe’s operation of online sports betting in the state of Florida, Google has decided to disallow sports wagering ads in the Sunshine State.
In a statement, the technology giant stated: “In November 2021, the Google Ads Gambling and games policy United States country-specific will be updated to disallow Sports Betting in Florida. This change is being made following a ruling from a Washington D.C. federal court that invalidated the Florida-Seminole Tribal Gaming Compact and made sports betting in Florida illegal. We will begin enforcing the policy clarification on November 24, 2021.”
This news arrives amid a legal battle between the Seminole Tribe, the state of Florida, and a number of non-Indian casinos in the region. The Seminole Tribe claims it can run mobile sports betting via servers on its land, despite the law stating patrons must be on tribal land while placing bets.
District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich, predictably disagreed with this assumption, stating: “When a federal statute authorizes activity only at specific locations, parties may not evade that limitation by ‘deeming’ their activity to occur where it, as a factual matter, does not.”
In response to this court ruling, Marcellus W. Osceola, Chairman of the Tribe contested: “The tribe’s online sports betting authorized by the compact is now in operation, and is generating millions in revenue per week. The tribe is using these funds to pay back the development costs for its online sportsbook, make revenue-sharing payments to the state, and fund important tribal programs.”
