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When it comes to poker in the US, Florida currently ranks alongside Nevada, California and New Jersey as one of the poker capitals.

Especially since 2010, when Florida lawmakers removed betting restrictions to allow the state’s card rooms to offer no-limit games. The Sunshine State became a genuine poker hotspot with dozens of active brick-and-mortar poker rooms.

As the third-most populated state in the US, Florida would seem like a good candidate to support real money poker sites as well. However, even though Florida lawmakers have occasionally discussed that possibility, there hasn’t been any progress yet to make Florida online poker a reality.

This Florida poker guide includes past and present discussions of online poker, a look at sweepstakes poker sites and their relevance to Florida poker. We also review current Florida poker laws, including their application to home games and a list of all the state’s card rooms.

Finally, we consider the potential for real-money, legal and regulated online poker to come to Florida.

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Is online poker legal in Florida?

No, online poker is not currently legal in Florida.

Lawmakers have considered legalizing online poker in the past, including in 2011, when online gambling bills were introduced in the state House and Senate. While those bills failed to pass, the topic remained alive over the next two years, kept so in part by Delaware legalizing online gambling in 2012, and Nevada and New Jersey following suit in 2013.

Discussions about online poker discontinued in 2014, however, when then-Gov. Rick Scott made known his support of a ban on all types of online gambling, both in his state and on a federal level. Scott’s announcement essentially quelled any further legislative movement until he left office in early 2019 after winning election to the US Senate.

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Scott’s successor, fellow Republican Rick DeSantis, was less vocal about gambling-related issues during his gubernatorial campaign. Although, when asked, he expressed opposition to online gambling expansion. DeSantis had something else in common with Scott in that he also received financial backing from billionaire gaming magnate and significant GOP donor Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands and fierce opponent of online gambling.

In the same 2018 election in which DeSantis was elected governor, Floridians approved a constitutional amendment giving citizens the right to vote on any future legislation affecting casino gambling in the state. That meant voters, and not legislators, would get to decide about the building of new casinos and/or the legalization of sports betting going forward.

The amendment makes passing any casino-related legislation potentially more difficult. It requires a lengthier and more complicated process.

Meanwhile, the state and the Seminole Tribe have been involved in lengthy and contentious negotiations over the renewal of their compact, which further complicates the landscape of gambling legislation.

The complexity of that situation has, so far, prevented Florida from joining the wave of states that have introduced sports betting since the US Supreme Court ruling lifted the federal prohibition in May 2018.

All these factors suggest that progress on several other fronts would need to occur first before the topic of online poker in Florida is taken up again.

Will Florida regulate online poker?

There isn’t any momentum at present to suggest an online poker bill will be advancing through the legislative process any time soon.

In fact, current Florida law describes illegal gambling in such a way as to suggest gambling online, including playing online poker, is prohibited.

“Whoever plays or engages in any game at cards, keno, roulette, faro or other games of chance, at any place, by any device whatsoever, for money or other thing of value, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree,” reads the statute.

Much of Florida will need to balance competing priorities and interests before pursuing sports betting. That same balance will no doubt need to be addressed before Florida will be able to legalize and regulate online gambling, including online poker.

If the state does legalize online poker in FL, it will likely be the Florida Lottery that will serve as the regulating body. It has been cited to perform a similar function over mobile sports betting in past proposed bills.

What are sweepstakes poker sites?

Sweepstakes online poker sites operate within states’ sweepstakes laws to provide poker players an alternative way to play online.

A popular example is the site Global Poker, which welcomes players from every state — except Washington, where the state law prohibits sweepstakes sites.

Sweepstakes online poker sites are unlike real-money sites in that users play the games using virtual currencies rather than cash.

For example, Global Poker uses two virtual currencies: gold coins and sweeps coins.

Players purchase gold coins with which they can play gold coins-only cash games and tournaments. In other words, gold coins are essentially “play money.”

However, by purchasing gold coins, players receive sweeps coins as a bonus. They can also obtain sweeps coins in other ways, such as via Facebook giveaways or by writing to Global Poker and requesting them.

Sweeps players can use coins on sweeps coins-specific cash games and tournaments in which they can collect more sweeps coins.

After accumulating a minimum amount of sweeps coins, players can then redeem them for US dollars and withdraw the money.

Sweepstakes-style online casinos operate in Florida as well, such as Chumba Casino.

It is worth noting that Florida’s sweepstakes laws do impose certain restrictions that cause some sweepstakes sites to operate differently in Florida than they do elsewhere.

What about offshore poker sites? Are they safe?

Without any legal real-money online poker options in Florida, some players in the state turn to so-called offshore poker sites that are operating outside of the US and serve American players.

While those who play on these sites aren’t likely to face legal repercussions, they are, nonetheless, taking significant risks when they do.

Ever since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, these non-US sites have been forced to find creative ways to allow Americans to deposit and withdraw funds. That’s because the UIGEA prohibits American banks and financial service providers from allowing transactions to and from non-US gambling sites.

Some of these “rogue” sites are licensed and regulated in other countries, but not all of them.

Regardless, US players are in an awkward position should they ever encounter any problems regarding game integrity or the security of their funds.

It has happened that some offshore sites have closed and made off with players’ money, in which case American players don’t have any legal recourse to try to recover their funds. Also, those who suspect cheating, collusion, ghosting, multi-accounti