The House yesterday (May 19) passed the bill to enact the compact by a vote of 97-17, just one day after the state’s Senate also voted to approve the measure.
The bill will now move to the US Secretary of the Interior for approval and ratification, prior to it coming into law and opening up sports betting to the Seminole Tribe.
The compact, which was first announced in April, is set to exclusively permit the tribe to run sports betting in Florida, with permission to partner with the state’s pari-mutuel operators.
Florida Senator Travis Hutson introduced a bill to implement the compact last week, but this ran into trouble when lawmakers raised concerns over a provision related to online casino.
The original version of the compact stated that the state and tribe would “engage in good faith negotiations” within the next three years to allow the tribe to offer online casino gaming.