TRIBAL GAMING
IGRA
reservation gaming activities and, therefore, Interior should not have allowed the agreement to go into effect. Though West Flagler sought only to invalidate the 2021 Compact’s online sports betting provisions, Judge Friedrich struck down the entire agreement. The Tribe immediately appealed, but, after attempts to stay the D.C. District Court’s order failed, suspended its online sports betting operation just a few weeks after the launch. Interior appealed the decision on the merits and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments about a year later, in December 2022. On June 30, 2023, the D.C. Circuit unanimously reversed Judge Friedrich’s decision, finding the 2021 Compact and its online sports betting provisions lawful under IGRA. West Flagler’s requests for rehearing en banc and a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court were both denied. With the 2021 Compact thus reinstated, the Tribe relaunched online sports betting in November 2023 — nearly two years after suspending its initial operations. In February 2024, West Flagler filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case, upholding the D.C. Circuit’s opinion and putting an end to West Flagler’s available appeals. Analysis: key legal issues decided in West Flagler Writing for the unanimous D.C. Circuit, Judge Wilkins rejected each of West Flagler’s arguments, accepting the 2021 Compact’s framework that “consider[s] all bets placed through the Tribe’s sports book, regardless of where the person placing the bet is physically located within the state, to occur where the sports book servers are located — in other words, on Tribal land.” 13 From this premise, the West Flagler opinion decided major issues for Tribal internet gaming under IGRA, the Wire Act, UIGEA, and constitutional equal protection principles.
The D.C. Circuit explained that IGRA can only provide authorization for a Tribe’s conduct of gaming activities on Indian lands; IGRA cannot, on its own, authorize gaming activities conducted off Indian lands. Under the 2021 Compact, IGRA could authorize the receipt and processing of a sports betting wager at the servers on the Tribe’s Indian lands, while placement of the wager off Indian lands was separately authorized under State law. This, as the D.C. Circuit noted, is consistent with Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community , in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that IGRA’s scope of authorization could not extend to a Tribe’s gaming facility off Indian lands, where state law instead would govern. While IGRA does not reach beyond Indian lands, there is nothing in IGRA that prohibits a compact from addressing activities that occur off Indian lands. The D.C. Circuit held that the 2021 Compact could include provisions that address all aspects of the sports betting transaction because the placement of the wager is, as IGRA’s catchall provision requires, “directly related to the operation of” the Tribe’s sportsbook, including the receipt and processing of the wager on Indian lands. This is also consistent with Bay Mills , in which the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that IGRA compacts can discuss topics covering state or Tribal activity off Indian lands. Finally, the 2021 Compact could “deem” the placement of the wager to occur on Indian lands because IGRA allows parties to allocate jurisdiction in this manner, and corresponding “deeming” language was built into State law. The 2021 Compact “simply allocates jurisdiction between Florida and the Tribe, as permitted by [IGRA],” thus allowing the Tribe to regulate online sports betting transactions from start to finish.
Wire Act, UIGEA, and equal protection
The D.C. Circuit further determined that West Flagler’s challenges to the 2021 Compact based on the Wire Act, UIGEA, and equal protection principles “lack[ed] merit as matter of law.”
13 W. Flagler Assocs., Ltd. v. Haaland , 71 F.4th 1059, 1063 (D.C. Cir. 2023), cert. denied , 144 S. Ct. 2671 (2024).
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IMGL MAGAZINE | MARCH 2025
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