Are Online Casinos Legal In Florida
- The nearest state where online casinos are legal West Virginia. The online casinos are now operational there! But, you can still register with a legal online casino while you're in Florida. That means you can get the casino's bonus offers or deposit, and then play whenever you're in states where it's legal.
- A key local site tracking all the latest legal developments related to online and brick and mortar gambling is the Florida Gaming Watch, who keep an up-to-date set of links running on all the top stories. One very key change which has taken place recently in the world of brick and mortar poker in Florida concerns the governance of table limits.
Legal Gambling Age in Florida Players must be 18 years of age or older to play at offline and online poker rooms, horse and dog tracks, and online bingo sites. The minimum age to play at land based casinos, online casinos and online sportsbooks is 21.
Poker is big business in Florida, with dozens of great land-based casinos and cardrooms, and a long tradition of legal gambling.
When it comes to online gaming, however, things get a little hazier. In 2020, there is no law regulating - or specifically outlawing - online poker to residents of the Sunshine State. That makes the whole online poker FL legal landscape kind of strange.
Best Legal Online Casinos
Having no regulatory law in place governing poker on the web doesn't mean Floridians can't enjoy great games online, though, and there are plenty of legal poker sites in Florida residents can play.
- Casino Gambling: Legal
- Poker: Legal
- Horse Racing Betting: Legal
- Dog Racing Betting: Legal
- Lottery: Legal
- Daily Fantasy Sports: Unspecified
- Charitable Gaming: Legal
- Social Gambling: Restricted
- Online Gambling: Unspecified
Is Online Betting Legal In Florida
Florida gambling law is ever-changing, as citizens and lawmakers wage constant war to push their various agendas. Legislation is perpetually being introduced to ban one form of gaming or expand some other type. While this creates an exciting dynamic for fans of politics on the state level, it also makes it difficult for the average fan to stay on top of things.
In order to provide a clearer picture, we’ve put together this overview of the current laws as they apply to gambling in Florida. Some or all of these may be different in a few years, which is why we suggest that high rollers or anyone planning on getting into the gambling business supplement this material with a visit to an attorney.
Our goal, however, is to keep this page on Florida gambling as updated as possible. So as we learn new information or new laws are passed, we will do our best to update this page. We want to make sure that our readers have the most accurate information so that they can make the best decisions of what to do when it comes to gambling in their state.
If you live in the state of Florida, we recommend bookmarking this page and any other resources that we suggest here so that you can keep up-to-date with what’s going on and make sure you’re informed about any new legal issues or better places for you to gamble.
We’ll dig into Florida’s gambling laws further down the page, but first we’d like to share some contextual information to help you put the whole story about the state’s betting regulations into perspective. You’ll see from the information below that Florida’s statutes related to gaming are an odd mix of ultra-progressive and ultra-conservative.
You’ll also see the clear influence of local anti-tax politics; though the state’s betting options bring in a couple billion a year, Florida lays claim to well under $500 million. The state’s relatively-paltry 20% casino revenue tax is mainly to blame.
- Age Requirements
- 18 in venues where no liquor is served; 21 otherwise
- Approximate Annual Gambling Revenue
- $2 billion
- Approximate Annual Gambling Taxes
- $393 million
- Number of Commercial Casinos
- 2
- Number of Rancinos
- 25
- Number of Tribal Casinos
- 8
- Casino Regulatory Body
- Florida Div. of Consumer Services
- Lottery National Rankings
- 3rd
The two commercial casino properties mentioned in the Key Info box above are casino cruise ships that embark from Florida, enter international waters, and allow customers to engage in traditional forms of gambling. That long list of racinos should tell you something about the state’s gambling market – it is generally disorganized, small-scale, and heavily-regulated. That’s pushed many Floridians interested in operating a gaming venue out of the market, and left a vacuum that only outside investment can fill. The result is a gambling-friendly state that’s never created an identity for itself.
Online Gambling Legal Florida
Part of Florida’s low-revenue problem has to do with its oddball gaming laws. Below you’ll find our detailed guide to Florida law, at least as it pertains to real-money betting.