Florida is home to many gaming choices both on the internet and in the actual world. Legal online gaming in Florida currently includes horse racing betting, greyhound gambling and everyday fantasy sports. In the physical realm, Florida has horse racing gambling, bingo, traditional casinos and jai alai betting.
Sports betting in Florida doesn’t appear likely at this time. The country has long been eyed as a significant potential market for sports betting, but modifications to state authorities have made any future gambling expansions harder as they currently require a statewide referendum initiated by petition.
Legal Online Betting Options
Let’s start with a quick collection of authorized Florida gaming websites and 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
18/21+ to Play, T&Cs Apply Review PLAY NOW
2
Free Contest Entry
18/21+ to Play, T&Cs Apply Review PLAY NOW
Horse and Greyhound Betting:
RankBetting SiteBonusRatingVisit
1
$20 Free + 100% up to $100
18/21+ to Play, T&Cs Employ Review PLAY NOW
2
100% up to $100
18/21+ to Perform, T&Cs Employ Inspection PLAY NOW
3
Wager $500, Get $100
18/21+ to Play, T&Cs Employ Review PLAY NOW
Horse and Greyhound Racing
Online horse racing and greyhound betting are lawful in Florida for decades and a variety of big racing websites accept clients from the Sunshine State. BetAmerica, TwinSpires and TVG all accept Florida clients 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 created greyhound racing and betting on live greyhound races held in Florida illegal starting on January 1st, 2021.
Existing racetracks will still be permitted to provide poker and other games after the amendment takes effect, but they will no longer be in a position to host live greyhound races. This modification has no effect on internet greyhound racing, which will stay legal because the amendment only attempts to prevent wagers put on races held at the country.
Fantasy Sports
The legal problem for fantasy sports in Florida is complex and unclear, but many daily fantasy websites have served the nation for decades with no interference from officials.
A number of attempts to officially legalize fantasy sports in Florida have collapsed over the decades because of disputes over how the activity should be categorized and the intricacy of tribal gambling contracts between the nation and the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
A 1991 Attorney General opinion lumped season-long dream sports in with gambling and opined that it is most likely illegal under state law, but the view is obsolete and does not maintain legal burden. Just as lawmakers would like to clarify the legal status of fantasy sports, progress has been slow. Meanwhile, Florida residents are accepted at both FanDuel and DraftKings:
FanDuel Review
DraftKings Review
Skill Games
Florida gaming law permits games of skill only if entrance fees don’t directly contribute to the prize pool. What this means is that it is legal to pay an entrance fee and compete for a fixed prize, but not to perform at a competition where all of the entry fees are accumulated to form the decoration pool .
As an example, it would be lawful to host a paid-entry golf championship if the organizers place fixed prizes that do not change regardless of the number of people enter the tournament. That same tournament could cross the line into illegal land if prizes were determined by pooling entrance fees and paying the winners a percentage 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 contest, in which the contestant pays an entry fee, which does not constitute the decoration, for the opportunity to win a valuable prize by the exercise of skill, does not violate the gaming laws of this state. To the extent that previous views of the office might be inconsistent with the conclusion reached herein, they are modified.»
WorldWinner.com, that is currently the largest skill gaming site, accepts citizens of Florida but restricts them from particular contests in which the prize pool is not fixed. Follow the link below to read more about WorldWinner:
WorldWinner Review
What about the lottery?
Florida DOES NOT sell tickets on line nor does it provide a subscription service. Of course, you could always try your luck at Experienced lottery resellers which you can find online. I don’t recommend going that path though. It is still illegal to sell lottery tickets online in Florida so any site involved in the company is totally untrue and probably located overseas.
Nobody really understands how safe or legit foreign lottery resellers are. They claim to have a team of representatives located around the world whose job it is to go around and purchase lottery tickets on behalf of customers. The issue is there is no way to confirm how it actually works.
If you want to play the lottery, it is ideal to just go buy your tickets in person. You really don’t wish to leave the destiny of your own $40 million jackpot in the hands of a foreign, quasi-legal site. Countries do have the ability to sell tickets on the internet, but Florida doesn’t yet do this.
Sports Betting at Florida
Sports betting is illegal for aside from 2 exceptions: jai alai betting and cruise ships that sail into international waters to offer sports gambling.
The exemption for jai alai gambling dates back to a time in Florida during which jai alai was considerably larger than the obscure sport it’s today. Jai alai came to Florida in the 1920s, and eventually the nation turned into somewhat of an epicenter for jai alai players around the world owing to warm weather yearlong and easy accessibility from Spain and Latin America, where jai alai is a favorite.
Through its heyday, jai alai was exempted from state and federal sports gambling prohibitions. Jai alai maintained a strong presence in Florida through the 1970s but entered a continuous decrease in the 1980s amid increasing 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 active frontons in operation today. For the most part, jai alai survives today primarily because of Florida gambling laws that require card rooms to offer some kind of parimutuel wagering (for instance, jai alai, greyhound racing or horse racing gambling ). Thus, most jai alai frontons exist chiefly to facilitate other forms of gambling.
Another»exclusion» into Florida’s sports betting prohibition occurs on the cruise ships operated 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 for a few hours and then return to shore later that exact same day.
As far as a widespread legalization of sport betting, Florida doesn’t seem likely to expand its gambling options any time soon. There have been no attempts to introduce sports betting legislation and there haven’t been any recent attempts to legalize sports gambling.
A report by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming recorded the 32 states most likely to legalize sports gambling within five years of a Supreme Court ruling overturning the national prohibition of sports betting. Florida wasn’t included in that listing, but it was included in a supplemental list of 12 additional states likely to legalize sports gambling within seven years of such a ruling.
Can Sports Betting Ever Be Legalized at Florida?
Aside from the exceptions detailed above, sports gambling remains illegal in Florida and that’s unlikely to change any time soon. Florida has a complicated mix of competing interests between lawmakers, Tribal concerns as well as the Disney business that have their own comments on the growth of gaming.
The odds of Florida legalizing sports betting any time soon took a hit in 2018 when voters approved a ballot measure that essentially stripped off the state legislature from authorizing any gambling expansion, including sports gambling.
Previously, the state legislature could have possibly drafted a law to make Florida sports betting legal. Under the new amendment, Florida taxpayers would need to initiate a campaign to gather signatures to put the issue into a statewide referendum. Then, voters would need to accept that referendum by 60 percent to make sports gambling legal. It’s possible, but not very likely at this moment.
Is it lawful to bet online in Florida?
It depends on what your definition of»legal» is. A few forms of internet betting are explicitly legal in Florida (horses, greyhounds, dream and ability ). It’s obviously illegal to run an internet casino, card room or some other business that accepts wagers without the correct licensing.
What isn’t clear is whether or not it is a crime to put bets online at unlicensed betting websites. The main text from Florida’s gambling laws reads as follows:
«849.08 Betting. Whoever plays or participates in any game at cards, keno, roulette, faro or other game of chance, anytime, by any device whatever, for money or other thing of value, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree…»
It seems pretty clear that this legislation makes it a misdemeanor offense to participate in obvious gaming games like slot machines, blackjack, craps and so on. The part that states»by any system whatever» can be readily translated to incorporate the internet. On the other hand, the state hasn’t once prosecuted one person for the mere act of placing bets online. Hunting down individuals playing blackjack on their computers just isn’t a high priority.
Online poker is a different matter. The above law doesn’t explicitly mention»poker» but it does mention»any game at cards.» But — there’s always a however — that the term»other game of chance» seems to imply that just games of chance are forbidden. If poker is not a game of chance, this legislation doesn’t apply.
It doesn’t end there, folks. You and I might not believe poker a sport of chance, but sure state and federal laws most certainly do specify poker as exactly that. Florida law does not define games of chance nor does it cite poker and there’s absolutely no case law to fall back on.
Someone would need to push the thing before we ever get Florida’s opinion on the situation of poker being skill or fortune. This likely will not happen anytime soon because nobody is hunting down poker players .
What the Future Holds for Internet Gambling at Florida
A growing number of countries are in the process of legalizing online poker and casino games following 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 internet poker, casino games or even both. State legislators in Florida have not yet moved to alter anything. No legislation is pending in this moment.
It does not seem like anything will probably be changing in Florida anytime soon either. The state is largely opposed to the growth of internet gambling. In April of 2014, Florida governor Rick Scott expressed his opposition to expanding online betting at the federal level with a letter led to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
In the years since, there haven’t been any real efforts to change Florida gambling laws. The current status quo appears quite likely to stay as it is for the near future.

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