The expansion of sports betting across the US continues at varying paces from state-to-state, as a major legal case blocks developments in Florida, but New Jersey continues to make gains.

Rollout of the industry across the cities, swamps and sunny beaches of the Southeastern state of Florida has been severely hindered by a Federal Ruling last week which saw federal judges decide that the state’s betting format was in violation of Indian Gaming Law.

Under the terms of Florida’s sports betting launch, the Seminole Tribe of Florida was granted a de facto monopoly. It was this that was judged to be in violation of federal law, effectively blocking the introduction of sports wagering into the Sunshine State indefinitely.

“When we look at what comes next, we know that there will be more lawyers, more courts, the appeals process is already underway,” said Adam Candee, Legal Sports Report Co-Host.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that one of the things the judge said in her decision is that the idea that bets are placed are on the sever and not on the mobile device does not hold water.

Candee further outlined how developments in Florida “could cause problems not just in Florida but in other states that are operating mobile sports betting under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA)”.

“The working definition here has been essential to stretch the idea of where the bet is placed as opposed to over the phone or on the computer,” he continued.

“There was a Bill proposed in Congress a couple of years ago to more clearly define this under IGRA, and that could be one potential fix, but that you would think that for a potential multi-billion dollar industry riding on this it wouldn’t be left to the hands of one or two judges for all that long before someone comes up with a better solution.”

Despite appeals by the Seminole Tribe that the loss of sports betting would deal a heavy blow to its economy, federal judges have also rejected arguments that the ruling irreparably harmed the community. Meanwhile, the Tribe has also been forbidden from incorporating craps or roulette to its casinos.

Further north, however, the state of New Jersey continues to stand out as a hub of the burgeoning North American betting and gaming market, having recorded a handle of over $1 billion for the second month running.

Sports betting revenue in the Northeastern state reached a record £84.2 million, whilst the handle stood at $1.3 billion – an increase of 28.9% from the $1.1 billion recorded in September.

“We’re seeing records everywhere,” Dustin Gouker, LSR Co-Host remarked. “Any place that has online sports betting there is a record. The biggest part of this is we usually see September be bigger – it’s the start of NFL season, college starts a little earlier, but the big games start in September. 

“There is an extra weekend of football, and that’s what gives us these records in states across the country. We saw half a billion in Michigan, three-quarters of a billion in Pennsylvania – that extra weekend of football just makes a huge difference to the bottom-line of states in terms of how much is wagered.”