Florida Lawmakers File Bills To Expand Gambling Prohibitions, Potentially Making Way For iGaming

Two bills were introduced in the Florida legislature this week that would expand the state’s ban on gambling to include “sweepstakes casinos,” internet casino gaming, and online sports betting outside its compact with the Seminole Tribe.

Rep. Walter Barnaby filed HB953 on Monday while Sen. Corey Simon filed his companion bill, S1404, in the upper chamber Wednesday. The language in the bills expands the ban to “internet gambling” and “internet sports wagering.” The bills as written leave room for interpretation; one is that the Seminole Tribe may be looking to expand into internet casino gaming via Hard Rock, and another is that the bill is an effective ban on sweepstakes casinos.

Hard Rock expanded its retail casino suite of games to include Class III gaming — including mobile sports betting — with the 30-year compact it signed with the state in May 2021 worth at least $500 million annually. That compact withstood multiple legal challenges at the state and federal levels, and Hard Rock has been offering online sports betting since December 2023.

How ‘internet gambling’ is defined

In both bills, “internet gambling” has been amended to be defined as the following:

…means to play or engage in any game in which money or other thing of value is awarded based on chance, regardless of any application of skill, that is available on the Internet and accessible on a mobile device, computer terminal, or other similar access device and simulates casino-style gaming, including, but not limited to, slot machines, video poker, and table games.

The key phrase appears to be “simulates casino-style gaming,” as that looks to be a direct challenge to sweepstakes casinos, which can offer free-to-play casino gaming with rewards that can result in payouts.

How ‘internet sports wagering’ is defined

Internet sports betting is more straightforward in the bills given it is currently in place. Barnaby and Simon defined it as a “means to stake, bet, or wager any money or other thing of value upon the result of any trial or contest of skill, speed, power, or endurance of human or beast that is available in the Internet and accessible on a mobile device, computer terminal, or other similar access device.”

There are legal penalties for both players and providers of such contests. Players who engage in internet gambling is guilty of a second-degree misdemeanor, but it takes two offenses to reach that threshold for internet sports betting.

Anyone considered a provider of either internet gambling or internet sports betting, be it an operator, supplier, vendors and/or payment processors, would be committing a third-degree felony.

Momentum toward Hard Rock iGaming launch?

On the surface, these two bills and the recent flurry of cease-and-desist letters sent by the Florida Gaming Control Commission to three of the largest offshore casino operators in the world could pave the way for Hard Rock to extend its de facto online monopoly beyond sports betting and into iGaming.

There was originally language in the compact that the two sides could negotiate towards an amendment to authorize the Seminole Tribe to offer “all types of covered games online or via mobile devices to players physically located in the state,” but it was removed. Opponents of that clause have since left the state legislature, which means it is possible the two sides could try to create amendments authorizing iGaming.

If Hard Rock were able to launch iGaming, it would likely make Florida the largest market for internet casino gaming in the U.S. Only seven states currently conduct legalized iGaming, with Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania the largest marketplaces.