West Flagler Associates officially submitted its reply brief in response to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The DOI recently submitted a brief suggesting the current Florida sports betting model is legally permissible and shouldn’t require review from the U.S. Supreme Court.

West Flagler disagrees with the DOI, instead arguing that Florida’s sports betting model violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). The Seminole Tribe in Florida essentially has a sports betting monopoly in the Sunshine State, allowing Hard Rock Bet to be the only operational legal mobile betting app in Florida.

A challenge of the legality of Florida’s betting system was once ruled in favor of West Flagler in district court before the court of appeals decision allowed the compact between the Seminoles and the state to remain in place.

The DOI argued that the agreement doesn’t violate the IGRA, while West Flagler believes the government agency’s argument actually gives the U.S. Supreme Court reason to look at the case.

“The centerpiece of the Government’s IGRA argument is that the Court of Appeals correctly interpreted the Compact as not authorizing any sports gaming off Indian lands and therefore the approval of the Compact did not violate IGRA,” the reply brief reads. “By contrast, the Government effectively concedes that if the Compact authorized gaming off Indian lands, then its approval would have violated IGRA and the Court of Appeals’ decision would have conflicted with decisions of this Court and other circuits, necessitating review and reversal by this Court.

“Thus, the central IGRA question boils down to whether the Court of Appeals properly held that it could ‘interpret’ the Compact as not authorizing sports gaming off Indian lands. If it did, then no review is warranted. If it did not, then even the Government implicitly concedes that review and reversal are needed.”

With West Flagler’s response filed, it’s up to the Supreme Court to determine if it wants to hear the case.