Florida bill dies at committee stage

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee effectively killed SB812 with a split vote, with two members voting in favour of the bill (Democrat Gwen Margolis and Republican Charlie Dean) and two against it (Republican Paula Dockery and Democrat Chris Smith).

This is a significant blow to the bill, which had previously passed through the Senate Regulated Industries Committee by a 10-2 vote just one month ago.

Senator Diaz de la Portilla reportedly told the committee that “What we’re trying to do here is create a Florida intrastate poker network and do it with Florida companies with regulations here, protecting from identify theft and protecting the consumer and having revenue go to the state.”

Poker Voters of America had initially drawn up the bill, which included a 10% gross receipts tax set to bring in a projected $10.5m (£6.5m) per year, last year.

PPA lobbyist Gus Corbella told the committee that the group considered restrictions on which operators could apply for licenses “monopolistic and unfair,” and reiterated that they preferred a federal solution.

In addition, Martin Shapiro, Florida state director for the PPA, used the Two Plus Two poker forum earlier this month to restate his group’s opinion that SB812 “limits competition and undermines the player experience and will not result in the promised state revenue,” and urged Floridians to tell senators the same.

Meanwhile, Frank Messersmith of the Sheriff’s Association was more blunt in his criticism, telling the Sunshine State’s local press that he considered online poker “internet crack” and “the ultimate convenience gambling.''

Last week the District of Columbia budget passed through congress, helping the 600,000-population jurisdiction to win the race to regulate online gambling. And, despite an amended Nevada bill passing through Assembly on Tuesday, Florida has now followed Iowa in seeing intrastate regulation proposals shot down.