After the New Jersey online gaming bill was vetoed by the
governor, Florida has taken the lead in the race for becoming
the first American state to legalize and regulate online poker
sites. Florida’s intrastate poker bill, SB 812, is different
from the New Jersey bill in that it addresses only online poker
and not other forms of online gambling.
SB 812, sponsored by Republican Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla from Miami, cleared the Senate Regulated Industries Committee by a 10 in favor and 2 against vote. The Senator told the Miami Herald, “What we have here is a bill that is very carefully crafted. What we’re trying to do here is generate revenue for Florida residents of $10-40 million. We’re protecting Florida consumers from having their identity stolen from having financial information stolen, from being easy prey from entities that operate offshore — outside the long arm reach of the United State.” The senators who opposed the bill were Republican Jim Norman from Tampa and Republican Steve Wise from Jacksonville.
The bill was originally drafted by the Poker Voters of America and a Florida based consultancy H2 Gambling Capital. The bill seeks to allow Florida’s 23 licensed pari-mutuels attached to horse and dog tracks and jai alai frontons to establish online poker sites. All the online poker sites would operate on a central poker network and utilize the liquidity of a central poker pool. There would be three operators that would be chosen by the state under a competitive tender process. The online poker sites’ gross monthly receipts would be taxed at 10%.
Between 600,000 and 900,000 Floridians are estimated to play at online poker sites. The state expects a boom when it comes to the live tournament circuit as well after approving high stakes games late last year. Figures provided by data consultancy H2 Gambling Capital project that intrastate online poker in Florida could generate U$341 million in gross wins in the three year period following regulation.
Just last week Nevada introduced a bill in its legislature to permit online poker. A few days ago a federal bill was introduced in the House to regulate all forms of online gambling except sports betting.