Florida Senator Portilla's: Internet Poker Consumer Protection and Revenue Generation Act

It looks like Florida is becoming more serious about passing an online gambling law within its borders through the use of pari-mutuels.

Senator Diaz de la Portilla has filed a bill (SB 812) entitled the Internet Poker Consumer Protection and Revenue Generation Act that would create “intrastate Internet poker to be provided to the public by cardroom operators through a state Internet poker network operated by licensed Internet poker hub operators.”

The whole 47 page filing can be viewed in its .pdf form here: SB 812.

Senator Portilla’s bill requires that a licensed cardroom operator to become a licensed provider of intrastate Internet poker through Internet poker hub operators. Getting a license for a hub will require an initial application along with “a license fee of $500,000 for the succeeding 12 months of licensure, a cardroom affiliate license will cost a nonrefundable license fee of $1,000 for the succeeding 12 months of licensure. If your application is accepted and you are awarded an Internet poker hub under SB812, the licensee shall pay a nonrefundable payment of $10 million.

There is a lot of steps to be taking to get this bill or any other legal online poker bill in Florida through all the proper channels and they have the added problem of the Seminole Tribe who by law can offer any form of gambling that is or becomes legal in the state and could offer their own online poker rooms even before the pari-mutuels are ready.

Though Florida may still have a long way to go and like California will have to address the tribal presence in their state regarding online gambling, they are at least moving to get online poker regulated within the state. When could something like this go into effect, that is not clear but Senator Portilla does have something in mind, in section 3 of SB 812 it states:

“This act shall take effect July 1, 2011”.