A bill in Florida that would stiffen punishments for anyone offering online gaming or betting outside of the Seminole Tribe has taken a step forward.
Sen. Corey Simon’s SB 1404 was unanimously approved by an 8-0 vote at the Senate Regulated Industries Committee this week.
The bill would explicitly ban internet gambling and online sports betting unless it is offered via the Seminole Tribe’s 30-year gaming compact with the Florida government. Hard Rock Bet is the tribe’s official gaming partner and operates the state’s only regulated online sportsbook. Effectively, the bill would more strongly enforce the Seminole’s monopoly.
SB 1404 defines “internet gambling” as when money “or other thing of value” is awarded via an online casino-style game that is “based on chance, regardless of any application of skill.” That definition could be interpreted to apply to online sweepstakes as well as typical online casinos. Online sports betting also includes the “other thing of value” note, which could feasibly refer to dual-currency operations.
If approved, the bill would make anyone operating or promoting online gaming or sports betting guilty of a third-degree felony. Players would be guilty of a second-degree misdemeanor offense.
With this week’s vote, SB 1404 has proceeded to the next Senate committee.
Simon’s bill one of many
Similar legislation has been filed in both chambers of the Florida legislature.
Sen. Jonathan Martin’s S1836, Rep. John Snyder’s H1467 and Rep. Webster Barnaby’s H953 each propose a similar stiffening of punishments for illegal gambling.
Martin’s bill would make advertising any non-Seminole-operated betting or any casino gaming a second-degree felony.
Snyder’s House bill also proposes regulating daily fantasy sports, although it does not appear to offer a clear definition of whether against-the-house DFS would be allowed.
Several of those bills also include other measures in common, such as making it a third-degree felony to bribe people with possible insider knowledge to negatively affect their own performance or the game’s outcome, for athletes to solicit or accept money with intent to negatively affect their performance or betting on the result of any game with knowledge that the results are prearranged or predetermined.
None of those other similar bills have yet made progress in their respective chamber.
Commissioner’s jobs in the spotlight
One of two amendments made to Simon’s bill this week added something also included in Snyder’s bill: nobody who has worked for the Florida Gaming Control Commission would be able to take a gambling industry job within two years of leaving employment with the state regulator.
That provision comes after FGCC Executive Director Louis Trombetta resigned from his post in December and quickly joined FanDuel as the company’s director of government relations.
Simon’s bill and the amendment were supported by the FGCC’s acting Executive Director, Ross Marshman.
