Florida is home to many gaming choices both on the internet and in the real world. Legal online gaming in Florida currently includes horse racing betting, greyhound betting and everyday fantasy sports. In the physical realm, Florida has horse racing betting, bingo, traditional casinos and jai alai betting.
Sports gambling in Florida does not appear likely at this time. The country has long been eyed as a significant potential market for sports gambling, but changes to state law have made any upcoming gaming expansions harder as they now take a statewide referendum initiated by petition.
Legal Online Betting Options
Let us start with a quick list of legal Florida betting sites and then dig into all the details below.
Sports Gaming:
RankBetting SiteBonusRatingVisit
1
100% up to $50
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Fantasy Sports:
RankBetting SiteBonusRatingVisit
1
Up to 4 Free Entries
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2
Free Contest Entry
18/21+ to Play, T&Cs Employ Inspection PLAY NOW
Horse and Greyhound Betting:
RankBetting SiteBonusRatingVisit
1
$20 Free + 100% up to $100
18/21+ to Play, T&Cs Apply Review PLAY NOW
2
100% up to $100
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3
Wager $500, Get $100
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Horse and Greyhound Racing
Online horse racing and greyhound gambling are lawful in Florida for decades and a number of major racing websites accept clients from the Sunshine State. BetAmerica, TwinSpires and TVG all accept Florida customers and are licensed right here in the United States.
BetAmerica Review
TwinSpires Review
TVG Review
In November 2018, Florida voters approved Amendment 13 to end greyhound racing. The change made greyhound racing and gambling on live greyhound races held in Florida illegal beginning on January 1st, 2021.
Present racetracks will nevertheless be allowed to offer poker and other games after the change takes effect, but they’ll no longer be able to host live greyhound races. This amendment has no effect on online greyhound racing, which will remain legal because the change only attempts to prevent wagers put on races held in the country.
Fantasy Sports
The legal situation for fantasy sports in Florida is complex and unclear, but many daily dream websites have served the nation for years with no hindrance from officials.
A number of attempts to formally legalize fantasy sports in Florida have failed over the years because of disputes over how the activity should be categorized and the intricacy of tribal gaming contracts between the nation and the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
A 1991 Attorney General opinion lumped season-long dream sports in with gaming and opined it is most likely illegal under state law, but the view is obsolete and does not hold legal burden. Just as lawmakers would like to explain the legal status of fantasy sports, progress has been slow. In the meantime, Florida residents are accepted in both FanDuel and DraftKings:
FanDuel Review
DraftKings Review
Skill Games
Florida gaming law allows games of skill only if entry fees do not directly lead to the prize pool. This means is that it is legal to pay an entrance fee and compete for a fixed prize, but not to perform at a contest where all the entry fees are collected to form the prize pool .
As an instance, it could be legal to host a paid-entry golf championship in the event the organizers set fixed prizes which don’t change no matter the number of men and women enter the tournament. The exact same tournament would cross the line into illegal territory if prizes were determined by pooling entry charges and paying the winners a proportion of the prize pool.
A 1990 opinion from the Attorney General summed it up as follows:
“Accordingly, I am of the view that a contest of skill, such as a hole-in-one golf competition, in which the contestant pays an entry fee, which does not make up the decoration, for the opportunity to win a prized trophy from the practice of skill, doesn’t violate the gaming laws of this state. To the extent that previous views of this office might be inconsistent with the conclusion reached herein, they are hereby modified.”
WorldWinner.com, which is currently the largest skill gaming site, accepts citizens of Florida but restricts them from particular contests in which the prize pool isn’t fixed. Follow the link below to see more about WorldWinner:
WorldWinner Review
What about the state lottery?
Florida DOES NOT sell lottery tickets online nor does it provide a subscription service. Obviously, you could always try your luck at unauthorized lottery resellers that you can discover online. I don’t recommend going that path though. It’s still illegal to sell lottery tickets on the internet from Florida so any website involved in the company is completely unregulated and most likely located abroad.
Nobody really understands how secure or legit foreign lottery resellers are. They claim to have a team of representatives located around the world whose job it is to go about and purchase lottery tickets on behalf of customers. The problem is there is no way to verify how it really works.
If you want to play the lottery, it’s ideal to just go buy your tickets in person. You truly don’t wish to leave the destiny of your own $40 million dollar at the hands of some overseas, quasi-legal site. Countries do have the authority to sell tickets on the internet, but Florida does not yet do this.
Sports Betting at Florida
Sports gambling is illegal for besides 2 exceptions: jai alai betting and cruise ships which sail to international waters to provide sports gambling.
The exemption for jai alai gambling dates back to some time in Florida through which jai alai was much bigger than the obscure sport it is today. Jai alai arrived to Florida in the 1920s, and eventually the state became a little of an epicenter for jai alai players across the world because of warm weather yearlong and effortless access from Spain and Latin America, where jai alai is popular.
During its heyday, jai alai was exempted from state and national sports betting prohibitions. Jai alai preserved a strong presence in Florida through the 1970s but entered a continuous decrease in the 1980s amid increasing competition from professional sports teams, the lottery and South Florida casinos.
Nowadays, jai alai is a fairly niche sport and there are just a couple of active frontons in operation today. For the most part, jai alai survives now primarily due to Florida gambling laws that require card rooms to offer some form of parimutuel wagering (for instance, jai alai, greyhound racing or horse racing gambling ). Therefore, most jai alai frontons exist chiefly to facilitate different kinds of gaming.
The other”exclusion” to Florida’s sports betting prohibition happens on the cruise ships operated by Victory Casino Cruises. Victory Casino Cruise ships depart twice each day out of Port Canaveral. These boats sail out into international waters, open a casino and sportsbook for a few hours and then come back to beach later the exact same day.
As far as a widespread legalization of sport gambling, Florida doesn’t seem likely to expand its gambling choices any time soon. There have been no attempts to present sports betting legislation and there haven’t been any recent attempts to legalize sports gambling.
A report from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming listed the 32 countries most likely to legalize sports gambling within five decades of a Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal prohibition of sports gambling. Florida was not included in that listing, but it had been contained in a supplemental list of all 12 additional states inclined to legalize sports betting within seven decades of such a judgment.
Will Sports Betting Ever Be Legalized in Florida?
Aside from the exceptions detailed above, sports betting remains prohibited in Florida and that is not likely to change any time soon. Florida has a complex mix of competing interests between lawmakers, Tribal issues as well as the Disney company that have their own comments on the growth of gaming.
The odds of Florida legalizing sports betting anytime soon took a further hit in 2018 when voters approved a ballot measure that basically stripped the state legislature from authorizing any gambling expansion, including sports betting.
Previously, the state legislature might have possibly drafted a law to make Florida sports gambling legal. Under the new amendment, Florida citizens would need to initiate a campaign to collect signatures to place the issue into a statewide referendum. Then, voters would need to accept that referendum by 60 percent to earn sports gambling legal. It is possible, but not very likely at this moment.
Is it legal to wager online in Florida?
It depends on what your definition of”lawful” is. A couple of forms of internet betting are specifically legal in Florida (horses, greyhounds, dream and ability ). It is obviously illegal to run an online casino, card room or some other company that takes wagers without the correct licensing.
What is not clear is whether it is a crime to place bets online at unlicensed gaming websites. The main text from Florida’s gambling laws reads as follows:
“849.08 Gambling. Whoever plays or participates in any sport , keno, roulette, faro or other game of chance, anytime, by any device whatever, for cash or other thing of value, will be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second level…”
It seems pretty apparent that this legislation makes it a misdemeanor crime to participate in obvious gambling games such as slot machines, slots, blackjack, craps and so forth. The part that states”by any device whatever” is readily interpreted to incorporate the internet. However, the state has never prosecuted one individual for the mere act of putting bets online. Hunting down individuals playing blackjack in their computers just isn’t a high priority.
Online poker is a different matter. The above law doesn’t explicitly cite”poker” but it does mention”any game at cards.” But — there’s always a however — the term”other game of chance” seems to imply that only games of chance are forbidden. If poker is not a game of chance, this legislation does not apply.
It doesn’t end there, folks. You and that I might not believe poker a sport of chance, but certain federal and state laws most definitely do specify poker as precisely that. Florida law doesn’t define games of chance nor does it mention poker and there is no case law to fall back on.
Someone would have to push the matter before we get Florida’s opinion on the situation of poker being skill or fortune. This probably will not happen any time soon because nobody is searching down poker players either.
What the Future Holds for Internet Gambling at Florida
An increasing number of countries are in the process of legalizing online casino and poker games following a federal judge ruled in 2011 the Wire Act of 1961 only applies to sports betting. Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have already legalized internet poker, casino games or even both. State legislators in Florida haven’t yet moved to change anything. No legislation is pending in this time.
It doesn’t look like anything will probably be shifting in Florida any time soon . The country is largely opposed to the expansion of internet gambling. In April of 2014, Florida governor Rick Scott expressed his opposition to enlarging online betting at the national level with a letter led to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
In the years since, there have been no real attempts to alter Florida gaming laws. The current status quo appears quite likely to stay as it is for the foreseeable future.
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