Florida Gets/Gives Mixed Messages On Legal Online Poker: Hopeful or Doubtful?
Florida is the state everyone in the poker world has its eyes on lately, as the state recently took its first step towards the legalization of online poker. A government “think tank” agency, Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA), put together a 12-page report on the possibility of legalizing online gambling (including online poker) in the state of Florida.
According to their study, the state has 3 basic options:
- wait until the U.S. Congress to legalize online poker and online gambling on a federal level
- prohibit (and strictly enforce prohibition) of online poker and online gambling within the state
- or choose to allow it and regulate it
Well, we could have told you that! Anyone reading this post could put that together.
What’s more, the conclusion the think tank draws is to find some happy medium between all three options. How unsurprising.
Although many of us online poker advocates are using the study to help make online poker legal in the state of Florida, the actual conclusions of the study are mixed at best. For example, they note that allowing online poker gambling within the state will increase the prevalence of the “negative social consequences” associated with gambling, and that gambling opponents say that gambling addition is higher online than off.
Meanwhile, as for the 3rd option of making it legal in Florida to play online poker, the study openly flouts the Poker Voters of America’s findings that legalizing online gambling could raise the state an extra $90 million each year.
And the fight rages on…!
So what’s next for Florida? The OPPAGA is scheduled to present their findings to the State Senate at the end of this month.
