Florida Is Consider Legalizing Internet Poker

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According to the Sun Sentinel, a South Florida newspaper, the State of Florida is considering legalizing Internet Poker.

A Bill  introduced by Florida Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, would legalize Internet poker effective July 1,  2011.

Mr. Abruzzo is quoted by the paper saying:

“There are hundreds of thousands of players in Florida in unregulated and unprotected offshore sites.

“Why not legalize, regulate and bring in revenue from something that’s already occurring?”

According to the Sun-Sentinel: “Opposing the Florida bill are online poker companies such as PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com, which already have a large audience and simply want the state to legalize their sites instead of going through the pari-mutuels. Some players’ groups also are against the bill because they want online poker approved nationally, not state by state.”

“John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, wants a national bill legalizing all Internet poker sites. He estimates 8 million to 10 million Americans — about 400,000 of them Floridians — play online through offshore accounts.”

“Under the proposal, up to three poker sites would contract with the state as hubs, with the websites of Florida’s 23 pari-mutuels’ card rooms each acting as a portal. To participate, players would click on a pari-mutuel site and go into a pool of other Florida players. The hubs would pull a small piece for each poker pot, called “the rake” in poker parlance, and pass it on to the card rooms. The state would get 10 percent of each card room’s rake, as it does now in brick-and-mortar poker rooms.”

New Jersey is also considering a law allowing online gambling.

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  3. RKB says

    We have almost 300 nice casino/poker related domains since 1999.
    Just can’t wait for it to be legalized in US. It is only a matter of time.
    Not selling any these days, only sold a few for pretty big amounts so far.

    Bring it on lol

  4. Rich says

    Interesting way to get around the Federal laws prohibiting the transfer of money in any form to a online poker site. I don’t trust any of the poker sites, so it would be quite nice to see what happens when poker sites come under State or Federal scrutiny.

  7. Philip Corwin says

    The states are the laboratories of democracy, so if some major states make this move to legalize intrastate online poker and it works out okay that could pave the way for an easing of federal law — several years from now.
    But for now, Rep. Spencer Bachus, the new Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has jurisdiction over any legislation that would ease or repeal the current Federal ban on Internet gambling, and he’s strongly on record as opposing that — so don’t expect a change in U.S. national law any time soon.

  8. TeenDomainer says

    I read the article this morning and I think it would be great for the bill to pass because people already gamble online why not let the state get a cut. I am not sure the state would make quite as much money because people would still be able to play at offshore sites like they do now.

  9. Alan says

    I used to live in Florida and my guess is that the Christian Right will have the bill killed
    before it leaves committee.