TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Seminole Tribe will begin offering sports betting at its Florida casinos in December, the tribe announced Wednesday.
In a press release, the tribe announced plans to introduce sports gambling, as well as craps and roulette at three of its South Florida locations; Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood and Seminole Casino Coconut Creek on Thursday, Dec. 7. The new games will come to the Hard Rock in Tampa on Friday, Dec. 8. They’ll go live at the Seminole Immokalee and Seminole Brighton casinos on Monday, Dec. 11.
The announcement comes about a week after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a $2.5 billion deal between the tribe and the state to allow sports betting in Florida. The agreement was greenlit by the Florida Legislature in May 2021 before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law.
The governor said the compact would bring an estimated $2.5 billion in revenue to Florida over the next five years.
“The Seminole Tribe of Florida’s new initiative will create jobs, increase tourism, and provide billions in added revenue for our state,” DeSantis said. “I was proud to work with the Tribe on our historic Gaming Compact and I look forward to its full implementation.”
“With the expansion of the new scope, we are creating over 1,000 new jobs made possible by the Compact,” said Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and Chairman of Hard Rock International. “This is a historic milestone that immediately puts Florida in the same league with the world’s great gaming destinations.”
The betting will only be in-person. The fate of online betting is still in question.
“The fight was always about and still about the online sports betting,” said Bob Jarvis, a professor at the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law.
