Florida is home to many gaming choices both on the internet and in the real world. Legal online gambling in Florida currently includes horse racing betting, greyhound gambling and everyday 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 the moment. The state has long been eyed as a significant potential market for sport gambling, but modifications to state authorities have made any future gaming expansions more difficult as they currently take a statewide referendum initiated by request.
Legal Online Betting Options
Let’s begin with a fast collection of authorized Florida gaming websites and then dig into all the details below.
Sports Gambling:
RankBetting SiteBonusRatingVisit
1
100% up to $50
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Fantasy Sports:
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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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3
Wager $500, Get $100
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Horse and Greyhound Racing
Online horse racing and greyhound betting have been legal in Florida for years and a variety of big racing websites accept clients from the Sunshine State. BetAmerica, TwinSpires and TVG all accept Florida customers and are licensed directly 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 created greyhound racing and betting on live greyhound races held in Florida illegal beginning on January 1st, 2021.
Existing racetracks will nevertheless be allowed to offer poker and other games after the amendment takes effect, however they will no longer be able to sponsor live greyhound races. This modification also has no effect on online greyhound racing, which will remain legal because the amendment only attempts to prevent wagers placed on races held in the country.
Fantasy Sports
The legal problem for fantasy sports in Florida is complex and unclear, but most daily dream sites have served the state for years with no interference from local officials.
A number of attempts to officially legalize dream sports in Florida have failed over the decades because of disputes on how the activity 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 probably illegal under state legislation, but the view is obsolete and does not maintain legal burden. Just as lawmakers want to explain the legal status of fantasy sports, progress has been slow. In the meantime, Florida residents are approved in both FanDuel and DraftKings:
FanDuel Review
DraftKings Review
Skill Games
Florida gambling law allows games of ability only if entrance fees don’t directly lead to the prize pool. What this signifies is that it’s authorized to pay an entry fee and compete for a set prize, but to not play in a competition where all of the entrance fees are accumulated to form the decoration pool itself.
For instance, it could be lawful to sponsor a paid-entry golf tournament if the organizers set fixed prizes that do not change regardless of the number of men and women enter the tournament. That same tournament could cross the line into illegal land if prizes were determined by pooling entry charges and paying the winners a percentage of the prize pool.
A 1990 comment from the Attorney General summed it up as follows:
“Accordingly, I am of the view that a competition of skill, such as a hole-in-one golf contest, where the contestant pays an entry fee, which does not make up the prize, for the opportunity to win a prized trophy from the practice of skill, does not violate the gaming laws of this nation. To the extent that previous opinions of the office might be inconsistent with the conclusion reached herein, they are hereby modified.”
WorldWinner.com, that is currently the largest skill gaming website, accepts residents of Florida but restricts them from certain contests where the prize pool isn’t 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. Obviously, you could always try your luck at unauthorized lottery resellers that you can discover online. I don’t suggest going that path though. It’s still illegal to sell lottery tickets on the internet from Florida so any website included in the company is totally untrue and probably located overseas.
Nobody really knows how safe or legit overseas lottery resellers are. They claim to have a staff of representatives located around the globe whose job it would be to go about and purchase lottery tickets on behalf of customers. The issue is there’s no way to verify how it actually works.
If you would like 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 $40 million dollar at the hands of some foreign, quasi-legal website. States do have the ability to sell tickets online, but Florida doesn’t yet do that.
Sports Betting in Florida
Sports betting is illegal for besides 2 exceptions: jai alai betting and cruise ships which sail into international waters to provide sports betting.
The exemption for jai alai gambling dates back to a time in Florida during which jai alai was considerably bigger than the obscure sport it is today. Jai alai arrived to Florida in the 1920s, and the nation became somewhat of an epicenter for jai alai players around the world owing to warm weather year-round and easy access from Spain and Latin America, where jai alai is popular.
Through its heyday, jai alai was exempted from state and federal sports gambling prohibitions. Jai alai preserved a strong presence in Florida throughout the 1970s but entered a continuous decrease from the 1980s amid increasing competition from professional sports clubs, the lottery and South Florida casinos.
Today, jai alai is a rather niche game and there are just a couple of active frontons in operation now. For the most part, jai alai survives now primarily due to Florida gaming laws that need card rooms to offer you some kind of parimutuel wagering (for instance, jai alai, greyhound racing or horse racing betting). Thus, most jai alai frontons exist chiefly to facilitate other kinds of gambling.
Another”exclusion” into Florida’s sports betting prohibition happens on the cruise ships operated by Victory Casino Cruises. Victory Casino Cruise ships leave twice a day out of Port Canaveral. These ships sail into international waters, open a casino and sportsbook to get a couple hours and then return to beach later that exact same day.
So far as a widespread legalization of sport betting, Florida doesn’t appear likely to expand its gambling options anytime soon. There haven’t been any efforts to introduce sports gambling legislation and there have been no recent efforts to legalize sports betting.
A report by Eilers & Krejcik Gambling listed the 32 countries most likely to legalize sports gambling within five years of a Supreme Court ruling overturning the national prohibition of sports gambling. Florida was not contained in that list, but it was included in a supplemental list of 12 additional states likely to legalize sports gambling within seven decades of such a ruling.
Can Sports Betting Ever Be Legalized in Florida?
Aside from the exceptions detailed above, sports gambling remains illegal in Florida and that is unlikely to change any time soon. Florida has a complex mixture of competing interests involving lawmakers, Tribal issues and even the Disney business that all have their own comments on the expansion of gambling.
The odds of Florida legalizing sports gambling any time soon took a hit in 2018 when voters approved a ballot measure that basically stripped the state legislature from authorizing any gaming expansion, including sports gambling.
Previously, the state legislature might have possibly 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 place the issue to a statewide referendum. Then, voters would have to approve that referendum by 60 percent to earn sports betting legal. It’s possible, but not too likely at this time.
Is it lawful to bet online in Florida?
It depends on what your definition of”legal” is. A few forms of online betting are explicitly legal in Florida (horses, greyhounds, dream and skill). It is obviously illegal to operate an online casino, card room or some other company that takes wagers without the correct licensing.
What isn’t clear is whether or not it is a crime to place bets online at unlicensed gaming sites. The main text from Florida’s gaming 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 cash or other thing of value, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree…”
It seems pretty apparent that this legislation makes it a misdemeanor offense to participate in obvious gaming games like slot machines, slots, blackjack, craps and so on. The part that says”by any device whatever” is readily interpreted to include the world wide web. On the other hand, the country has never once prosecuted a single individual for the mere act of placing bets online. Hunting down individuals playing blackjack in their computers just isn’t a priority.
Internet poker is a different matter. The above law does not explicitly cite”poker” although it does say”any game at cards.” But — there is always a but — that the term”other game of chance” seems to imply that only games of chance have been forbidden. If poker isn’t a game of chance, this legislation doesn’t apply.
It does not end there, folks. You and that I might not believe poker a game of chance, but sure state and federal laws most definitely do define poker as precisely 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 matter before we get Florida’s view on the situation of poker being ability or luck. 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 casino and poker games following a federal judge ruled in 2011 the Wire Act of 1961 only applies to sports gambling. Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have already legalized internet poker, casino games or both. State legislators in Florida haven’t yet moved to change anything. No legislation is pending at this time.
It doesn’t look like anything will probably be changing in Florida any time soon either. The state is largely opposed to the growth of internet gambling. In April of 2014, Florida governor Rick Scott voiced his opposition to enlarging online gambling at the national 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 legislation. The present status quo appears quite likely to remain as it is for the near future.

Read more here: https://imeconet.com/2019/12/06/guys-bets-episode-204-colts-at-texans-thursday-night-football-plus-ncaa-football-basketball-nba-and-nhl/