Gambling and cards are the favorite past times of people. The State of Florida in the USA sanctioned gambling and recognized it under certain regulations in 1931.

 

Local lawmakers realized that people betting on dog races, horse races, and jai alai could churn a big chunk of revenue for them. Most of the sports betting facilities now house real and virtual slots machines such as judi online.

 

Now, the Sunshine State, Florida boasts of independent poker rooms, bingo halls and card rooms for other competitive card games. Gambling has been defined under Florida Laws as “playing or engaging in any card game or game of chance, at any place, by any device, for money or another thing of value.”

 

Tribal gambling was made legit in Florida after the passing of the federal Indian Regulatory Gaming Act of 1988. The local indigenous tribes established 8 casinos housing state identified slots machines and table games. 

 

The seven casinos belong to the Seminole Tribe and the last one belongs to the Miccosukee tribe. The Florida Lottery is the only tiger in the realm of Florida's lottery gaming industry. Bingo rooms for raising charitable funds are also regulated under these laws. 

 

The Florida code makes participating in unlicensed land-based gaming a second-degree misdemeanor under section 848 of the code. The section doesn't apply to any kind of online gaming. They also do not cover games played at personal properties.

 

 

It means that people can play online games that operate outside Florida. Local authorities are not too strict to find a loose interpretation of the law and turn individual players in as far as they do not cause any threat to the law-and-order situation in Florida.

 

Florida Statutes 849.01 et seq. and 550.001 et seq are two laws regulating gambling in the state of Florida. For entering a casino, you must be 21 years of age. However, you must have completed 18 years of age for playing the lottery, betting on racing games like dog and horse racing. Bingo, and jai alai.

 

There is no law yet on online gambling in Florida. However, this status shall be changing anytime now. The state has received over $300 million in revenues annually from the gambling industry. Local politicians are also moving to include and regulate online gambling to increase the share of the revenue. Most of them are not sure how things will take a turn after legalizing the online gambling industry. However, it appears that the proposal will unlikely receive any negative retaliation on this move.

 

The Seminole tribe doesn't want to get included in the politically charged issue of the legalization of sports betting. Tribe's spokesperson, Gary Bitner, the tribe doesn't identify itself in dealing with sports betting as a form of gambling because of the grey area in which the sports betting industry seem to operate. 

 

Land-based casinos in Florida are operated by tribal associations. The law prohibits independent card rooms to offer slot machine games and card games in which house is the party, to their visitors. There are eight casinos out of which five offer more than 1000 slot machine games. Their names are:

 

Residents do not have access to any regulated internet casinos. It is early for any speculation to brew.  The iGmaing industry is not abuzz with news of which iGaming companies will be interested in launching Florida centric online gambling sites. As of now, law fearing Floridians are happy with social websites.

 

 

However, the stand on people of Florida playing on off-shore casino sites is a grey area itself. Playing at an online casino with real money will violate Florida's gambling laws. Offshore casino platforms accept payment from the people of Florida but it is pretty much not allowed.

 

The Sunshine State is famous for its poker rooms and is touted as a major most sought-after location for gambling in the USA. But Florida state laws have not recognized any online playing poker rooms where residents can entertain themselves with a game of online poker.

 

However, there are ways in which you can play online poker in Florida without breaking any laws or jeopardizing your freedom. First of all, you need to access and become a member of an online poker social gaming platform. Make sure the website where you are planning to play is operated outside Florida. However, their legal status is the same if the country they are operating recognizes the website as legit.

 

As far as sports betting is concerned, it is still illegal to place bets on spots here. Horse race and dog race betting are legal though. However, it can be done through websites operated in Las Vegas where esports betting is completely legal.