Florida submits plan for legal online poker

FLORIDA has become the second US state to file an intrastate egaming bill, submitting plans for legal, intrastate online poker.

Representative Joseph Abruzzo filed the Internet Poker Consumer Protection and Revenue Generation Act of 2010 (HB 1441) last Friday, which was the deadline for bills to be considered during Florida’s current legislative session.

Abruzzo’s is the first poker-specific bill based on the proviso within the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) for individual states to authorise and regulate egaming within their borders, following New Jersey Senator Ray Lesniak’s January bill proposing Atlantic City’s beleaguered casinos offer their games online.

The bill proposes Florida’s 21 pari-mutuels operating card rooms as licensees of online poker portals which would pool player liquidity into a central poker network. The network would be run by one or more system “hub” operators chosen by the state under a competitive tender process.

Hub operators meeting the criteria would be required to pay a non-refundable, one-off licence fee of US$500,000 to Florida’s Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Central hub operators would then pay an annual US$1,000 licence fee in addition to 10% of gross monthly receipts from intrastate poker to the division.

The bill stipulates that applicants to run the intrastate network be already licensed to operate regulated gaming or lotteries in at least one other US state, and also to conduct egaming legally in least one regulated jurisdiction outside the US.

Melanie Brenner, the president of lobby group Poker Voters of America, which drafted the bill in partnership with a Florida-based consulting firm, explained why this language had been included: “We are always asked, ‘how will you get customers to migrate to this site?’ Our response is that the network operator would need to have solid experience of running systems, of CRM, offer the full range of games and so forth, to ensure the system would work for the state.”

The state’s proposed tax take has been set at 20% of monthly gross receipts of the card room affiliates licensed under the new regime. Strict safeguards for player protection and against gambling addiction are also written into Abruzzo’s bill, with players required to be over 21, and proposed daily limits on the frequency and size of deposits.

Florida’s legislative session began on Monday this week and will run until 30 April, meaning that the bill has a two-month window to be passed.

Brenner said, “During the next eight weeks, it will be up to us to negotiate with the legislators and the pari-mutuels to get a bill everyone is happy with and get it passed.”

The PVA president also revealed to EGRMagazine.com that Senator Dennis Jones, chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee charged with oversight for the state’s gambling sector, has agreed to sponsor the bill on the Senate side.

For more on Florida or poker, see our Florida Market Focus or click the tags below.