Legal Sports Betting Could Come To FL In 2020

• The state of Florida has three new sports betting bills ready to be seen at the start of the new year.
• These bills will allow for both retail and internet gambling on sporting events.
• Should they be signed into law, the state would have legal sports betting by the end of 2020.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Legal sports betting could arrive in the state of Florida in 2020. On Friday, Senator Jeff Brandes (R- Pinellas County) brought about three separate bills for the legislature’s consideration next year. These bills cover regulation, licensing, and taxes for the wagering of sporting events.

If the meetings by the committees these bills were sent to prove to be fruitful, the state could see legal betting by October 2020. Support will seem to be found regularly in the Rules Committee, Appropriations Committee, and Innovation, Industry, and Technology Committee as Brandes sits in all three of these committees.

The Bill Bundle

Each bill that will be seen is for separate aspects pertaining to legalized sports wagering. FL SB 968 has to do with the regulation of the pastime.

Under this bill, the state’s lottery would be appointed to regulate all things that relate to betting on sports. The legal age to participate is set at 21 within this bill. All wagers would be exclusive with the Florida Lottery for any retail wagers, however, there is room for other operators that are not related with the lottery to be able to offer sports betting through online platforms.

FL SB 970 relates to the licensing for businesses that wish to dabble in legal sports betting and have it as something their patrons can enjoy. There will be both an application fee and an annual renewal fee once their license has been approved.

These operators would be allowed to give their customers the opportunity to wager on sporting events through the internet. The annual licensing fee stands at $100,000.

The third and final bill in the bundle is FL SB 972. This covers the tax rate on revenue accumulated from legalized sports betting. There will be a 15% tax on all revenue from both retail and internet wagers.

Will The Bills Be Successful?

There has been speculation that unless Brandes receives approval by the Seminole Tribe of Florida that there is no way that the bills will be legalized. According to the tribal compact within the state, they have some exclusive rights when it comes to gambling in Florida. But Brandes believes otherwise.

“Frankly, there’s just no real need to go through the tribe if we already have our own lottery system set up perfectly capable of handling sports betting,” said Brandes.

The Tribe has already stopped payments to the state of Florida to the sum of over $300 million because of a different compact violation where Florida began to have card games at various places like dog racing tracks.

Therefore, there seems to be no real opposition when it comes to them having a say over legal sports betting. If these bills become legal, Floridians will be able to legally wager on their favorite teams by the end of next year.

News tags: FL SB 968 | FL SB 970 | FL SB 972 | Jeff Brandes | Pinellas County | Seminole Tribe of Florida | the Florida Lottery