Florida is home to numerous betting options both on the internet and in the real world. Legal online gambling in Florida now includes horse racing betting, greyhound gambling and daily fantasy sports. In the physical realm, Florida has horse racing betting, bingo, conventional casinos and jai alai betting.
Sports betting in Florida doesn’t seem likely at this time. The state has long been eyed as a significant potential market for sport gambling, but changes to state authorities have made any future gambling expansions harder as they currently take a statewide referendum initiated by petition.
Legal Online Betting Options
Let us begin with a fast list of legal Florida gaming websites 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
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Horse and Greyhound Betting:
RankBetting SiteBonusRatingVisit
1
$20 Free + 100% up to $100
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2
100% up to $100
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Wager $500, Get $100
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Horse and Greyhound Racing
Online horse racing and greyhound betting are legal in Florida for years and a number of major racing sites accept customers from the Sunshine State. BetAmerica, TwinSpires and TVG all accept Florida customers and are licensed right here in america.
BetAmerica Review
TwinSpires Review
TVG Review
In November 2018, Florida voters approved Amendment 13 to end greyhound racing. The amendment made greyhound racing and gambling on live greyhound races held in Florida illegal starting on January 1st, 2021.
Present racetracks will still be permitted to provide poker and other games following the amendment takes effect, but they will no longer be in a position to sponsor live greyhound races. This amendment also has no impact on internet greyhound racing, which will stay legal because the change only attempts to prevent wagers placed on races held in the country.
Fantasy Sports
The legal situation for fantasy sports in Florida is complicated and uncertain, but most daily fantasy websites have served the state for decades with no interference from local officials.
Multiple attempts to formally legalize dream sports in Florida have failed over the decades due to disputes over how the action ought to be categorized and the intricacy of tribal gambling contracts between the state and the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
A 1991 Attorney General opinion lumped season-long dream sports in with gaming and opined that it is most likely illegal under state law, but the view is outdated and does not hold legal weight. Just as lawmakers want to clarify the legal status of fantasy sports, progress has been slow. In the meantime, Florida residents are accepted at both FanDuel and DraftKings:
FanDuel Review
DraftKings Review
Skill Games
Florida gambling law permits games of ability only if entry fees don’t directly lead to the prize pool. What this means is that it is legal to pay an entry fee and compete for a set prize, but not to play at a contest where all of the entry fees are collected to form the prize pool itself.
For instance, it could be lawful to sponsor a paid-entry golf tournament if the organizers place fixed prizes which don’t change no matter the number of people enter the tournament. The exact same tournament would cross the line into illegal territory if prizes were determined by pooling entrance fees and paying the winners a proportion of the prize pool.
A 1990 opinion from the Attorney General summed it up as follows:
„Thus, I am of the opinion that a contest of skill, such as a hole-in-one golf competition, where the contestant pays an entry fee, which doesn’t make up the decoration, for the chance to win a prized trophy from the practice of skill, does not violate the gambling 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 where 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 offer a subscription service. Of course, you can always try your luck at unauthorized lottery resellers which you can discover online. I don’t suggest going that path though. It’s still illegal to sell lottery tickets online in Florida so any site involved in the company is totally unregulated and most likely located abroad.
Nobody really knows how safe or legit foreign lottery resellers are. They claim to have a staff of agents located around the world whose job it would be to go about and buy lottery tickets on behalf of customers. The problem is there is no way to verify how it actually works.
If you want to play the lottery, then it’s best to just go buy your tickets in person. You truly don’t wish to leave the destiny of your $40 million jackpot in the hands of a overseas, quasi-legal website. Countries do have the ability to sell tickets online, but Florida does not yet do this.
Sports Betting at Florida
Sports gambling is illegal for aside from 2 exceptions: jai alai betting and cruise ships which sail into international waters to offer sports betting.
The exemption for jai alai gambling dates back to some time in Florida through which jai alai was considerably larger than the vague sport it’s today. Jai alai came to Florida in the 1920s, and eventually the state turned into somewhat of an epicenter for jai alai players across the world because of warm weather yearlong and effortless accessibility from Spain and Latin America, where jai alai is popular.
During its heyday, jai alai was even exempted from state and national sports betting prohibitions. Jai alai maintained a strong presence in Florida through the 1970s but entered a steady decline from the 1980s amid rising competition from professional sports clubs, the South and lottery Florida casinos.
Nowadays, jai alai is a rather niche game and there are just a couple of busy frontons in operation now. For the most part, jai alai survives today primarily because of Florida gaming laws that require card rooms to offer you some form of parimutuel wagering (such as jai alai, greyhound racing or horse racing betting). Therefore, most jai alai frontons exist chiefly to facilitate other kinds of gaming.
Another“exclusion“ to Florida’s sports betting prohibition occurs on the cruise ships managed by Victory Casino Cruises. Victory Casino Cruise ships leave twice a day from Port Canaveral. These boats sail out into international waters, open a casino and sportsbook to get a couple hours and then return to beach later that same day.
So far as a widespread legalization of sports gambling, Florida does not seem likely to expand its gambling options any time soon. There haven’t been any efforts to introduce sports betting legislation and there haven’t been any recent attempts to legalize sports betting.
A report by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming listed the 32 countries likely to legalize sports gambling within five decades of a Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal prohibition of sports gambling. Florida was not contained in that listing, but it had been contained in a supplemental collection of 12 additional states likely to legalize sports gambling within seven years of such a ruling.
Can Sports Betting Ever Be Legalized in Florida?
Apart from the exceptions detailed above, sports betting remains illegal in Florida and that is not likely to change any time soon. Florida has a complex mixture of competing interests between lawmakers, Tribal concerns as well as the Disney company that all have their own opinions on the growth of gaming.
The odds of Florida legalizing sports betting anytime soon took a hit in 2018 when voters approved a ballot measure that basically stripped off the state legislature from authorizing any gambling expansion, such as sports betting.
Previously, the state legislature might have potentially drafted a new law to create Florida sports gambling legal. Under the new amendment, Florida taxpayers would need to initiate a campaign to collect signatures to put the issue to a statewide referendum. Subsequently, Republicans would have to accept that referendum by 60% to make sports betting legal. It is possible, but not very likely at this time.
Is it legal to bet online in Florida?
It depends on what your definition of“legal“ is. A couple of forms of internet betting are specifically legal in Florida (horses, greyhounds, dream and skill). It is obviously illegal to run an online casino, card room or some other company that accepts wagers without the proper licensing.
What is not clear is whether it is a crime to put bets online at unlicensed betting sites. The key text from Florida’s gaming laws reads as follows:
„849.08 Gambling. Whoever plays or participates in any game , keno, roulette, faro or other game of chance, anytime, by any device whatever, to get money or other item of value, will be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second level…“
It seems fairly apparent that this legislation makes it a misdemeanor crime to take part in obvious gaming games such as slot machines, blackjack, craps and so forth. The part that states“by any system whatever“ can be readily interpreted to include the internet. On the other hand, the country has never prosecuted a single person for the mere act of putting bets online. Hunting down individuals playing blackjack on their computers just isn’t a priority.
Online poker is a different matter. The above mentioned law doesn’t explicitly cite“poker“ but it does mention“any game at cards.“ But — there is always a but — the term“other game of chance“ seems to suggest that just games of chance are forbidden. If poker isn’t a game of chance, this legislation doesn’t apply.
It doesn’t end there, folks. You and I might not consider poker a sport of chance, but certain state and federal laws most certainly do define poker as precisely that. Florida law does not 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 ever get Florida’s view on the situation of poker being ability or luck. This probably won’t happen anytime soon because nobody is searching down poker players .
What the Future Holds for Internet Gambling at Florida
An increasing number of countries are in the process of legalizing online poker and casino games after a federal judge ruled in 2011 that the Wire Act of 1961 only applies to sports gambling. Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have already legalized either internet poker, casino games or even both. State legislators in Florida haven’t yet moved to alter anything. No legislation is pending at this moment.
It does not seem like anything will probably be shifting in Florida anytime soon either. The state is largely opposed to the expansion of online gambling. Back in April of 2014, Florida governor Rick Scott expressed his opposition to enlarging online betting at the national level with a letter directed to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
In the years since, there have been no real efforts to change Florida gambling laws. The present status quo appears quite likely to stay as it is for the near future.
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