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The back-and-forth of the Florida sports betting bill wages on as the US Department of Justice (DoJ) filed its response in the Supreme Court on Monday (May 13).
This all began following a petition by the owners of one of the state’s oldest pari-mutuels who asked justices to invalidate the 2021 gaming agreement between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
The compact agreement allowed the tribe control over sports betting in Florida, with the tribe agreeing to pay the state at least $2.5 billion within the first five years of the deal.
In 2021, the tribe briefly launched an app aimed at allowing sports wagering throughout the state but this was shut down after the pari-mutuel companies filed a federal lawsuit.
West Flagler Associates Ltd and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp also then challenged the compact in the U.S. Supreme Court as they argued it violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act because it authorizes gambling off tribal lands.
After West Flagler and Associates filed a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court in April, the Department of Justice has come back to say the case has no place before the court.
Department of Justice responds to Florida sports betting case
The response concludes with: “The petition for a writ of certiorari should be denied.”
Lawyers of the department suggest the Florida sports betting case comes down to three components and all are explored in the response:

Does the compact violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act?

Does the company violate the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act?

Does the Department of the Interior’s approval violate the equal-protection measures outlined in the Fifth Amendment?

The filed paperwork suggests the Department of Interiors can only disapprove a proposed compact “if it violates IGRA, federal law, or trust obligations to tribes.”
“In any event, the compact in this case is an agreement between two sovereigns – the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe – concerning the Tribe’s own conduct of commercial gaming operations within the State,” outlines the brief.
Featured Image: Photo by Ryan Parker on Unsplash
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OKX, a prominent global digital asset exchange, has officially commenced operations in Australia, marking a significant milestone since establishing its Sydney office in May 2023. The launch, announced on Tuesday, enables spot trading for all users and derivatives trading for verified wholesale clients in the country.
This expansion follows OKX’s recent successes, including receiving in-principle approval for a payments license in Singapore and launching operations in Turkey earlier this year. The Australian launch is part of OKX’s ongoing commitment to expansion, the firm explained in an X post:
We’re now the largest global crypto exchange offering AUD on ramps & spot trading pairs. […] As part of our long-term commitment to the Australian market, we look forward to continuing to improve our offering to better serve the local crypto community.
At launch, spot trading users have access to 170 crypto spot pairs and a total of 85 tokens, including popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Tether. OKX Australia plans to add more tokens in the coming months. Jamie Kennedy, general manager at OKX Australia said:
Australian crypto users deserve […] AUD pairs for the most popular cryptocurrencies. It’s my job to make sure that while we offer the best product, we also invest in compliance and security to give peace of mind to our users. I’m proud to say we have assembled a great local team that will ensure OKX contributes to Australia’s crypto industry for years to come.
Australia’s growing crypto adoption
Australia has become an attractive market for crypto exchanges due to its crypto-savvy population. A survey from Koinly revealed that as of July 2023, 31.6% of Australians held or had held cryptocurrencies. Moreover, crypto ownership in the country has consistently increased since 2019, with 1 in 4 adults now owning some form of cryptocurrency.
However, the Australian government has recently intensified scrutiny on crypto exchanges, demanding data from 1.2 million accounts to crack down on users failing to pay taxes amid the rising interest in crypto tokens.
Despite the increased regulatory attention, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is considering approving its first-ever Spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the end of 2024. This move is expected to trigger a surge in Bitcoin investment options for Australian users, further fueling the country’s growing crypto adoption.
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Coinbase, a popular cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Tuesday in an X post  it was facing a “system-wide outage.” The company is actively investigating the cause of the issue and reassured its customers that despite the outage no user funds were lost:
Your funds are safe.
At the time of the full outage, visitors attempting to access Coinbase’s website were greeted with a “503 Service Temporarily Unavailable” message, indicating that the platform is currently unavailable due to technical difficulties. Since then, Coinbase published a second announcement claiming that normal operations resumed:
Coinbase is now fully recovered. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
Despite this announcement, the firm’s Coinbase Status incident tracking page seemingly suggests that not all issues were already resolved. The last update on the page reads:
Update – We are continuing to investigate this issue.
This is not the first time Coinbase has encountered technical issues. In March, the exchange experienced a temporary glitch during a period of high trading activity. Some users reported seeing their account balances incorrectly displayed as $0, causing momentary panic among the affected customers.
An influential exchange
Coinbase is the second-largest crypto exchange — preceded only by Binance — and listing a coin or token on the platform can significantly impact its performance. In fact, the crypto community refers as the “Coinbase effect” due to the sharp price increases often reported post-listing.
The sole existence of the Coinbase effect term is a testament to its frequency, many believe its significance is waning. Still, it may still be quite interesting for the average investor to consult our list of ten upcoming Coinbase listings. While price increases are far from guaranteed, listings are expected to improve asset liquidity and notability at least.
The post Coinbase sees global outage but says ‘funds are safe’ appeared first on ReadWrite.

Two major class action lawsuits against Nintendo over Switch Joy-Con drift are to be dismissed due to an arbitration clause. A third was already dismissed in 2022.
Despite Joy-Con drift being a well-known, ongoing issue affecting consumers who purchase Nintendo Switches, Nintendo has successfully dodged legal ramifications due to a clause in its End-User Licence Agreement (EULA). Switch owners are compelled to agree to in order to use their devices.
When they agree to the EULA, Switch owners agree that they “waive their right to file a class action [suit] or seek relief on a class basis” and agree that disputes will “be finally settled by binding arbitration”. None of the plaintiffs named in the class action suits undertook the process to opt out of arbitration, according to court records.
It is this clause that has resulted in what is now three class action lawsuits about Joy-Cons being dismissed in the US, reports Game File.

NEW – 5 years of efforts to sue Nintendo over Joy-Con drift have all but ended with a whimper
Plaintiffs (parents/kids) and defendant (Nintendo) in the 2 main class action claims in the U.S., filed in 2019/20, agreed last week to call for their dismissal https://t.co/dTLhP7Wzci pic.twitter.com/DEJM76F9y9
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) May 13, 2024

What is Joy-Con drift?
Joy-Cons, the Switch’s controllers, are known for a defect called Joy-Con drift. The controller’s joysticks are prone to register inputs even when there are none, leading to controls ‘drifting’ in a direction unwanted by a player. Nintendo has been aware of the issue since it began and has been offering free repairs to Joy-Cons since 2019, shortly after the first class action lawsuit was filed.
They acknowledged the continued problem in a 2020 Q&A (in Japanese), where Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa apologized for the ongoing issues, but declined to go into detail due to the lawsuits.
Will the Switch 2 have Joy-Con drift?
Consumers were pleased when Nintendo started offering free repairs to drifting Joy-Cons, but disgruntled users were quick to point out that the Switch Lite, which launched in 2019, also suffered from the issue, and could not be sent off easily for repairs because the controllers are integrated with the unit and are not detachable, such as with the larger console.
Little is known at present about the Switch 2. We aren’t even sure if it will have the same structure as the Switch – Nintendo changed the console drastically between the Wii and its successor, the Wii-U. It is a sure thing that people will be on high alert for drift from the get-go though, and possibly more aware of the rights they are signing away when they skim past the EULA and hit “I agree” without a thought.
Featured image credit: Nintendo
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