Florida Looking to Speed Up Online Poker Regulation

The state of Florida, like many others in the US, has seen a significant decrease in tax revenues due to the effects of the recession and is expected to have a $6 billion deficit for 2011.

For a possible solution, proponents of online gaming are suggesting for Florida to promote legislation that will legalise Internet gambling sites, specifically online poker. This could potentially make hundreds of millions of dollars for the state.

One of the supporters of the plan, Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington , says that he will campaign for this legislation in 2011. Abruzzo claimed that the proposal would generate $200 million per year and there would also be a licensing fee of $500,000 for operators as well as a 20% tax on gross receipts. It is believed there are over 1 million Internet poker players in Florida alone. Estimates say that US residents wager just under $6 billion per year at offshore gaming sites.

The online poker players are actually the one’s who are most opposed to the idea. Theresa Schofield, who represents the Poker Players Alliance (and their 1,000,000+ members) said “a Federal approach” would be better. Schofield also highlighted that, as only people from the state of Florida could actually play in these games, the prize money wouldn’t come close to what is currently offered online.