Florida Pushes New Bills to Bar All But The Seminole Tribe to Offer Online Gambling

Florida’s sports betting is currently the exclusive purview of the Seminole Tribe and Hard Rock Bet, and lawmakers are keen to keep it this way. Representative Walter Barnaby and Senator Corey Simon filed HB953 and S1404 in their respective chambers to ensure that this is the case.

New Bills Want to Prohibit All Internet Gambling Outside of Compact with Seminole Tribe

The bills effectively want to enforce a state-wide ban on sweepstake casinos, Internet gaming, and online sports betting that is operated outside of the state’s current compact with the Seminole Tribe, giving the tribe exclusivity over any current and future such developments.

This is indicative that, apart from running the Hard Rock Bet app, the Seminole Tribe may also be keen to launch an online casino before long. Sweepstakes casinos, on the other hand, have been seen as the enemy of late, with tribal leaders and states, as well as private companies and the American Gaming Association, criticizing the sector as a “legal acrobatic” around existing laws.

Both lawmakers have followed the same phrasing in defining Internet gambling, providing the following definition: “Internet gambling 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.”

A keen observer would make out the phrase “casino-style gaming”, which is intended to go after any social casinos that offer free-to-play games but are also generating revenue and profit as a result of this “casino-style gaming.”

Does this mean that Hard Rock is heading for an online casino? It could be. Florida has recently attacked a number of sweepstakes casinos as well as offshore gambling sites that have been providing their services locally.

No Love for Sweepstakes and Social Casinos in Florida

Although the state does not necessarily equate the two as equally harmful, there is strong opposition to both segments, and observers have noted that the Seminole Tribe is most likely going to end with exclusivity over the market.

In the latest enforcement action launched by the Florida Gaming Control Commission in February, the regulator went after PrizePicks, Betr, and Underdog Fantasy, all of which operate on the social and sweepstakes model, which is a clear sign that the Sunshine State is not going to look favorably on such endeavors in the future.