The parties involved in a lawsuit to stop Arizona sports betting are still working toward a settlement.
The Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe and Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona Department of Gaming Director Ted Vogt filed a joint status report with the Maricopa County Superior Court last week. It is the first update since the court granted the case a stay in November as the parties worked to find an amicable solution.
At the time, the court placed the case on the dismissal calendar for Feb. 14, 2022. The new filing asks the court for additional time.
“The parties advise this court that they have been diligently working to settle this matter and believe settlement remains imminent and likely,” the filing reads. “However, no settlement to date has been finalized given the complexity of the subject matter, the multiple parties involved, and the intervening holiday season.”
New timeline requested
In August 2021, the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe filed a lawsuit against the state and ADG, claiming the expansion of gaming through legislative action was unconstitutional. The defendants argue the Yavapai-Prescott declined to negotiate a new compact as other tribes in the state did.
Judge James Smith denied the tribe’s original request for injunction Sept. 6, 2021, just days before AZ sports betting began.
The proposed timeline includes responses to all open topics in the case, including:
- “Plaintiff shall file its response to the Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss filed on October 18, 2021, by March 14, 2022.”
- “Defendants shall file a reply in support of the Motion to Dismiss no later than April 11, 2022.”
- “The Parties shall conduct a Rule 16 Conference and submit a Joint Report regarding the same no later than 10 calendar days after the Court’s ruling on the Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss.”
Arizona sports betting off to promising start
Arizona sports betting launched Sept. 9 with seven sportsbook operators. In the first two months of action, Arizonans bet more than $777 million in wagers, with operators generating $67.6 million in gross revenue.
However, with sportsbooks deducting more than $57 million in promo spending from that total, the state collected just over $1 million in taxes in the first two months. In November, the state’s sportsbooks took $466.7 million in bets, generating $51.4 million in revenue. The state collected $3.2 million in taxes after the third month of action.
The state is now up to 13 online sportsbooks, with a few more pending final ADG approval.
