Florida is currently facing a huge deficit of $3.2 billion. One bill, filed this week, hopes to ease this deficit with online poker. That’s right-this week a bill was filed to legalize online poker within Florida.
The Internet Poker Consumer Protection and Revenue Generation Act of 2010, also known as HB 1441, is a 42-page long bill that hopes to build a framework for the regulation of Internet poker sites within the state of Florida, keeping customer protection in mind. If this bill is passed, the new legislation will allow players ages 21 and older to play online poker within the confines of Florida. Players must be physically located inside the state to play, under the bill.
HB 1441 was filed by Joseph Abruzzo, a Democratic State Representative from Florida. Abruzzo believes that if intrastate online poker is legalized under this bill then more than $200 million in revenue can be generated each year. These statistics are based on the fact that about 900,000 Florida residents currently gamble on the Internet.
Intrastate online poker sites in Florida would not only collect tax on money deposited by players, but would also charge each Internet poker operator a fee of $500,000, in addition to a charge of 20% of its monthly revenue. The bill also presents certain requirements that online poker operators must meet, including specific consumer safeguards.
If HB 1441 is passed, the new laws will go into effect on January 1, 2010. Similar legislation is also on the table in other states across the United States, including Iowa, New Jersey and California.
