I have written a draft legislative bill to license & regulate Internet poker in Florida (see THIS THREAD for more details).

Now just a week or two away from starting action plans to get the draft bill introduced for the 2016 Florida legislative session. Here is the overall plan:

Steps 1. & 2. will run concurrently as the first campaign, starting in May.

I'm looking now to line up volunteers to help with this project. PM me with your contact info to volunteer to help run the social media campaigns on twitter, facebook & emails. [ni9n3r has already been helping with the Twitter account - thanks! - and can use some help.]

If you can help out with direct contact with any of the cardrooms in Florida, PM me.

If you are a Florida player willing to participate in the campaigns, then follow & like our twitter & facebook (see our web site: http://www.iPokerFlorida.com )

If you already have connections to any Florida legislators and can work on step 3. now, PM me. May also need other volunteers later for this step.

Step 4. will take everyone's participation, once the bill is introduced in early 2016.

yea boy with crook ric scott, nothing will happen unless he is funneled another billion, he has proven he only cares about the rich and no one else,

Refused 2 billion for high speed rail so his stupid all aboard florida can **** the people and line his pockets

Wont help with medicaid so it cost the citizens more yet he stilll lives off that stolen money from his COMPANY


and why do we want IPOKEr and be shut out of sites we can already play on, so we get a site with maybe 750 people on it and really scotts in bed with adleson so good luck with that, the way adleson ****ed up legal weed in the stat. FLORIDA CITIZENS need their heads examined with SCOTT, JEB BUSH, this state is just corrupt



NO THANKS

I remember when it was Pokerstars/FullTilt/AP-UB. Then it was Carbon/Lock/Bodog. Now it's just Bovada.

NO THANKS.

The path is open to state-regulated i-poker. Let's move it forward while we can.

Is there any way this could backfire and have our state end up like NJ and NV? We have more than just Bovada, and I really don't wanna end up with just WSOP.

so much short term, results oriented thinking from poker players. What is with that?

If I were you, I'd be more worried about what you'll end up with in a few years if we don't move towards US-state-regulated i-poker. Things have progressed slowly in NV, NJ & DE, but this year saw the first interstate networking (NV&DE), and will probably see the first entry of PokerStars back into the US.

I think the time is ripe to start lobbying for Florida to get in on the game. Better now than after the next federal crackdown on foreign sites.

Why would the paramutuel-linked or Indian casino card rooms support licensure of more competition? I can see how their interests are long term served by internet poker because it a) gives newbies a chance to play for $50, and b) could lead to promotional tv, which was what High Stakes Poker and the 6 man sit n' go shows were all about.

I can see them supporting going back to pre-Black Friday. But not just intrastate. That's just more competition in a state where there's tons already.

I am attempting to become more informed. Thank you for contributing.

Under my bill, the only site operators in Florida will be licensed cardrooms. They will run portals (skins) to Florida-licensed network operators (pokerstars, 888.com, bwin.partypoker, etc.). The cardrooms will get at least 45% of the site revenues.

The tribal casinos will not be authorized to run poker sites. Under the current Seminole compact, the state is allowed to authorize Internet poker for others. The terms of the compact specify that if Seminole gaming revenues fall below a certain level per year after Internet poker is authorized, the revenue-sharing with the state will be reduced. However, the yearly gaming revenues of the tribe are sufficiently high for that never to be a factor. Besides which, we know from experience that Internet poker does not cannibalize live play.

One of the reasons I am pushing now for this bill is because of the current compact terms regarding Internet poker. The Florida legislators are currently in negotiations with the tribe for amended terms for the compact. I don't want the new terms to shut out the possibility of iPoker authorization for Florida, so now is the time to get the backing of legislators.

You can read the full cliffs of the bill here: http://ipokerflorida.com/legislation/

I would think legal internet poker in Florida could help tourism. It might be an incentive for some vacationers and spring breakers not to stop at South Carolina, Georgia and the Gulf states. Also some Europeans would like it.

Absolutely! It would dovetail very nicely with the live poker scene here, that already makes Florida a poker destination.

I can confirm that as a european i would gladly go back to florida for holidays if i could play in the hotel in the evenings. Love Florida. Good effort OP

There is no way this gets passed in florida.

If florida was seperated in two (at the West palm beach line), then maybe, but no chance when you have redneck north florida.

Also Rick Scott is a slimy sleazy greaseball.

This is a state that had 58% to pass legalization of marijuana (like colorado/washington), but failed because for some reason, the state wanted 60%.

This is also a state that is ran by disney and indians.

This is a pointless fight in the state of Florida. You'd have better luck in California, New York, Massachusetts.

Some said the same thing about slots in South Florida and table games (blackjack, etc.) for the Seminole casinos.

This proposal is one which is likely to be supported by most of the Florida cardrooms - and they have a lot of political clout throughout the state. It also can be used by Florida politicians as a way to "even the playing field" against the tribal casinos, without having to expand slots at the pari-mutuels.

By the way, the marijuana vote required 60% because it was a voter referendum for a constitutional amendment, which under the Florida constitution requires 60% to pass. The ipoker bill will only require a simple majority vote (50%+1) in each of the legislative chambers to pass.

florida should be 2 states but really america should be 4 countries not one its just too big to get anything done.

Does this whole fight have to be done at the state levels, wish they would just federallyd o it but then

WE HAVE CROOK SCOTT AS GOVT and he would say no dice cause obama passed it. HOW IS SCOTT NOT IN JAIL and HOW IS SCOTT ABLE TO KEEP ALL THAT MONEY HE STOLE

DONt understand why this would increase tourism when they would probably just goto live casinos, Hey i went to florida and played online poker,

I think the point was that some beach-going vacationers who like to play poker might choose Florida over other coastal states so they can spend some their hotel downtime playing online. I believe also that a lot of poker players who travel to play will choose Florida more often as their destination if Internet poker on the major poker networks is available.

Hey I went to Florida in January and laid by the pool playing a tournament on my laptop.

I remember when they had the referendum to increase the plurality required for constitutional amendments from 50% to 60%. it passed by like 53% lol. Oh, the irony.

between this thread and merge withdrawal thread, you should change your name to downer dzappy


I wish you luck op, and would really be cool if withdrawals could be made at cage of participating affiliate casinos.

dzappy is right.

florida should be 2 states. cut off at the west palm beach area.

and america should be 4 (or more) countries. at least 2.

**** these stupid red-neck religious idiots holding back this country.

every single red state blows.


now that i look at a USA map, there are only like 5-10 worth living in. And what a shock, they are all on the coast. Every other terrible state is in the middle.

One could make a case that Pennsylvania / New york are terrible as well outside of Philadelphia and NYC.

NAh it would be cool but only if we are gonna have little traffic on these sites that would be intra state only, If were fighting to just screw ourselves out of the outlaw sites we already have then WHY, i dont want to play on sites with nothing but the sharks waiting, that wont be no fun

If they are gonna try to get thing introduced, wish they would try to get pokerstars back in on the deal

I dunno yall might be right, it might be better but it aint gonna hve the traffic that sites we have to play on now which is more than bovada

My bill would allow the affiliate live cardrooms to both register player accounts and do deposits & withdrawals in person.

Under my bill provisions, pokerstars would be eligible to apply for a license to be a network provider. I'm sure the upcoming approval in NJ will pave the way for them.

Bovada>whatever f*cked up micro-pool closed off Florida site would be

Florida has 20 million ppl. What you said is simply stupid

Florida has the third-largest population in the US. And with 30 live poker rooms across the state, Florida has a very active player base (Florida is at least the 3rd largest for poker room revenues in the US, if not the 2nd largest after CA - the Seminoles don't publish their revenues, so we don't know exactly where it falls). The bill requires the poker networks to spend 3.5% of revenues on in-state advertising.

Under my bill, ipoker would work like this:

• All 24 of the state-licensed cardrooms can get a license to operate portals (skins) to the state-licensed poker networks just by applying for it, for a license fee of $1000/year. (The tribes are not entitled to a license.)
• Any poker network operator who hasn't taken online gambling/poker wagers from Florida residents in felony violation of any state or federal laws for the past 3 years can apply for a license (no problem for amaya/pokerstars).
• The poker networks pay $250K/year for a license and $5M upfront as a deposit against revenue taxes. Revenue taxes are 10%, paid monthly to the state.
• The poker networks have to pay at least 36% of their monthly revenues to the cardrooms with portals on their network. In addition, 9% of the monthly revenues get split evenly between all licensed cardrooms running a portal (even if the portal is run in combination with one or more other cardrooms).

So, you can expect at least 888.com, bwin.party and pokerstars to run networks in Florida, and probably all 24 cardrooms running portals to the networks (since even if a cardroom has very low traffic through their portal, they still get an even share of the 9% from all networks).

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be long until Florida>Bovada.

The bill also lets the state enter into reciprocal agreements with regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions to do player pooling across borders, both interstate and international.

This bill is written by and for players.