Free Republic

Sports betting and other games will hit Florida beginning in December at Seminole casinos, the Seminole Tribe of Florida announced Wednesday following a recent legal victory, which doubles as a delayed win for the DeSantis administration. A multibillion-dollar gambling deal between Florida and the state’s Seminole Tribe has been held up in court for over two years, but last week, the Supreme Court opened the door for it to resume over two years after the Florida legislature approved the gambling deal, which “permitted sports betting and also authorized the Tribe to add craps and roulette to its current casinos and...

A federal appeals court will not rehear a case intended to stop online sports betting in Florida, but whether that means sports betting is finally coming to the Sunshine State is not clear. West Flagler Associates has been trying to stop a state compact with the Seminole Tribe that would allow online sports betting on tribal lands. Back in June an appeals court panel sided with the U.S. Department of the Interior that the federal government followed the rules when it allowed the Seminole Tribe to enter into a compact with the state of Florida in 2021. West Flagler Associates...

“Everyone cheats” is a hell of a lesson for the nation’s kids. When it comes to professional sports it might be true. When everyone is at the top of their game, and there are millions of dollars on the line, everyone will look for an advantage. Some people will cross the line, and many of those people will get away with it. Is it time to accept this? I’m not suggesting pro sports go the route of the great Saturday Night Live skit about the “All-Drug Olympics” from back when the show was funny, but maybe acknowledge that players, even...

The New York State Gaming Commission on Nov. 8 awarded nine temporary mobile sports betting licenses. These mobile licenses signal a massive market change that will recapture millions of dollars in lost gaming revenue in New York. It will also eliminate the need for bettors to cross New Jersey’s border to place mobile sports bets.

You can’t turn on a TV or radio without seeing some ad for a sports betting app. Some hot chick or semi-famous dude telling you all about how “the game” can be even more fun to watch if you put money on it. And your first bet is free, or given absurd odds, or they’ll just give you a chunk of cash anyway. They’re all desperate to get you to download their app because they know once you do that, they’ve got you. It’s a boom time for casinos, but it will ruin sports even more than the leftist activist...

The debate over how to establish the industry will be informed by a “disparity study” to determine whether racial minorities or women face a disadvantage in participating in the gambling industry. If the study finds that’s the case, lawmakers may need to include provisions so that underrepresented groups have a chance to participate. With those questions unresolved, it’s not known yet when bettors will be able to place a wager.

Gov. Kevin Stitt and Attorney General Mike Hunter tangled Tuesday over tribal gaming compacts, signed in an elaborate ceremony earlier in the day, that authorize the Comanche and Otoe-Missouria tribal governments to begin sports betting and banked table games such as true blackjack. Stitt hailed the agreements as a breakthrough in tribal gaming negotiations, but Hunter said the governor exceeded his powers.

Consider a little history from the Hawkeye state. The University of Iowa basketball team has a junior center who just completed one of the most amazing seasons in Big Ten history. Luka Garza scored at least 20 points in 16 consecutive games. He set a single season Hawkeye scoring record. He was named Big Ten player of the year and a first team All-American. His achievements came against some of the best big men in the country, in spite of the fact he was usually double and occasionally triple-teamed. The Northwestern coach described Luka with one word, “relentless.” Ironically, even...

I’m a big fan of accountability – if you break the rules there has to be consequences, or else there are no rules. But I’m also for sanity and proportional punishment, which is why I think it’s time (well past, to be honest) to lift the lifetime ban on Pete Rose and allow him into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pete Rose bet on baseball, he also lied about it when caught. All of this is well known and not irrelevant, but the price for that has been paid. Rose is baseball’s hit king, slapping out 67 more hits and Ty...

Prominent Twin Cities businessman Irwin Jacobs and his wife were found dead Wednesday in their Lake Minnetonka home in an apparent murder-suicide, according to a close friend and business associate. Orono Police Chief Correy Farniok said officers who responded to the Shoreline Drive home shortly after 8:30 a.m. found the bodies in a bed along with a gun.

The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law that bars gambling on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states, giving states the go-ahead to legalize betting on sports. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The 1992 law barred state-authorized sports gambling with some exceptions. It made Nevada the only state where a person could wager on the results of a single game.

Americans have long since broken free of their Puritan past, but the Puritan impulse is not quite dead. Among the places it shows signs of life is the 1992 federal law that prohibits states from -- you are not going to believe this -- allowing betting on sports. If a Martian arrived today, of course, she would deduce that in this country, betting on sports is not forbidden but mandatory. In practice, it's as American as Dunkin' Donuts. March Madness costs businesses an estimated $4 billion a year in lost productivity, and it's not because employees waste time singing their...

As a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Chris Christie promised to stop states such as Colorado from legalizing marijuana. As governor of New Jersey, Christie insists that the federal government has no business stopping his state from legalizing sports betting -- an argument that got a mostly friendly reception at the Supreme Court on Monday. The most likely explanation for Christie's situational federalism is that he does not mind if people bet on sports but cannot abide pot smoking. But there is a legal rationale for Christie's apparent inconsistency, and it says a lot about the extent to...

DOVER, Del. -- Delaware officials are fighting a request by professional sports leagues and the NCAA for a quick ruling by a federal appeals court on the state's plan to offer sports betting. A federal district judge has already denied a request from the leagues and the National Collegiate Athletic Association for a preliminary injunction that would have barred the state from offering sports betting with the start of football season in early September.

Faced with the threat of Delaware’s reactivation of sports betting, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine is now seeking to join a federal lawsuit that would make the industry legal in the state of New Jersey and 46 others. Delaware signed legislation into law last month legalizing sports betting, which under a federal law in 1992 was banned in all but four states (Delaware, Nevada, Montana and Oregon.) “Delaware’s entry into sports wagering and table games is a serious threat to both the casino and horse racing industries in New Jersey,” Corzine said. “We must do everything in our power...

Boys to men: Why guys aren’t growing upCareer aimlessness and beer and porn culture define ‘Guyland’ updated 10:41 a.m. ET, Wed., Aug. 27, 2008 After interviewing hundreds of 16- to 26-year-olds across the U.S., sociologist and gender studies expert Michael Kimmel found a trend of “guy” culture that is marked by the inability to have healthy relationships with women, murky career goals, and the desire not to grow up. In his new book “Guyland,” Kimmel writes about why many young men are trapped between adolescence and adulthood. An excerpt. **SNIP** Today, many of these young men, poised between adolescence and...

You think the NFL has a problem with Matt Walsh, the New England Patriots and Spygate? Is so-called rogue referee and game-fixer Tim Donaghy — he bet on more than 100 NBA games — commissioner David Stern's only gambling concern? Does the challenge of Southern Cal in light of the Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo scandals keep NCAA officials awake at night, or does something more disturbing cause that insomnia? Steroids haunt baseball. But is what looms on the horizon more of a challenge to the integrity of the game, a Pandora's box containing baseball's greatest mortal sin? It could...

In what is thought to be the first comprehensive, empirical study of online-gambling behaviors, Harvard Medical School's Division of Addictions characterizes a majority of online gamblers' behavior as "moderate," concluding that its findings do not support previously-made claims that online gambling has "an inherent propensity" to cause problem or "excessive" gambling. The study, "Assessing the Playing Field: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Internet Sports Gambling Behavior," was conducted with the support of the Austrian online-betting group Bwin in order to guide the company in its efforts to implement and promote responsible gambling. As its authors explain, the study responds to...

The House of Representatives voted 245 to 159 to pass the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1999. Because of a rule requiring two-thirds approval, the measure didn't pass. Its sponsor, Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., plans to introduce it again when only a majority is needed for passage. If enacted, it would "Amend the Federal criminal code to make it unlawful for any person engaged in a gambling business to knowingly use the Internet or any other interactive computer service to: (1) place, receive or otherwise make a bet or wager; or (2) send, receive, or invite information assisting in the placing...