Florida Sports Betting Takes Aim At Illegal Gambling

Florida sports betting has incurred a variety of twists and turns since being legalized back in 2021. These developments have included, on multiple occasions, challenges of legalization itself. The Sunshine State, at one point, was even forced to shudder its services. While objections remain to how sports betting in Florida is conducted, those matters are long since settled. Now, though, gambling regulators and state officials are left grappling with another issue: the prospect of rigged sports betting.

This comes as a shock on the surface. Many believe that regulated sports betting in the United States is necessary in large part because it organically weeds out illegal gambling. That is true to some extent. After all, most bettors seemingly only take to the black market because they don’t have access to legal forms of wagering.

This is also why you see more and more supporters advocating for legal online sports betting. It was initially fairly common to exclusively green light in-person operations. At this point, however, the vast majority of sports betting in the USA runs through mobile gambling sites. For many legal markets, in fact, over 95 percent of the sports betting volume takes place online.

To that end, if you only legalize retail wagering, you are no longer catering to consumer activity. This increases the likelihood that people within the market journey across state lines, use offshore sportsbooks or consider black-market operations with an online presence.

With all of this said, bad actors will always redouble their focus and find ways to adapt their illegal operations. Black-market betting will never fully go away, but it is (most assuredly) down in Florida and elsewhere. In response, though, many believe that criminal enterprises emphasize rigging competition outcomes or individual-player betting lines. The latest Florida sports betting bill seeks to address this.

New Florida Sports Betting Bill Takes Aim At Rigged Gambling Operations

Lawmakers are currently discussing House Bill 189 (HB 189), a piece of legislation that’s seemingly a response to the rising number of sports betting scandals. Here is what the initiative seeks to accomplish, per Craig Patrick of FOX13 in Tampa Bay:

Step up penalties for bribing players or accepting bribes to influence contests, covering professional and amateur sports, including horse racing.
Make it a third-degree felony to bet on any contest when the outcome is known to be prearranged or predetermined, with penalties up to five years in prison.
Strengthen state oversight and preempt local governments from setting their own betting rules.

If HB 189 is successfully passed, it will go into effect as of July 2026. The increased penalties for people and enterprises who initiate bridges and rigged contests is bound to garner near-universal support. The other two objectives are a different story.

Increasing penalties for players who accept bribes in return for helping prearrange outcomes will likely get plenty of support as well. But much of that advocacy will be specific to pro athletes making an excellent living. Support could start to favor when it comes to collegiate athletes, who are, generally speaking, not as well off as those in pros.

The biggest sticking point of all, however, may be the attempt to increase state oversight.

Will Policymakers Support Increased State Oversight?

States mostly scoff at the idea of federal regulation for sport betting. This will be seen as an extension of that for local governments.

This is especially true for major city hubs. Just consider the most recent case of sports betting in Illinois. State representatives have spent the past few months railing against the additional sports gambling taxes approved by Chicago officials. They worry that allowing The Windy City to form their own policies will lead to decentralized regulation, as well as push-back from sportsbooks in the form of added fees they pass onto consumers.

It remains to be seen whether something similar can happen with Florida sports betting. Their setup is unique in that the Seminole Tribe is the state’s lone operator. But that does not necessarily prevent major city hubs like Miami, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, etc. from attempting to raise the fees for which the Seminole Tribe is responsible.

There is likely something within the state’s gaming compact that prevents such a development. Then again, the gaming compact also stipulated that Florida sports betting must take place on tribal property. The Seminoles reimagined that interpretation—effectively, we might add. They argue that because the servers operating their Florida online sports betting app are on tribal property, the app itself is an extension of tribal property.

As a result, the Seminole Tribe is able to offer sports betting to anyone of legal age in the state. In doing so, though, they may have opened themselves up to scrutiny from local city governments. Online sports betting taxes are typically higher than they are for on-site transactions. As far as we know, the Seminoles’ contributions to the state have not functionally increased. That could be grounds for local governments to oppose blanketed oversight at the state level.

Florida Will Not Be The Only State Seeking These Changes

Regardless of how HB 189’s state-oversight element plays out, the spirit of the bill will become commonplace. The FBI’s investigation in 2025 to a variety of rigged gambling rings was an eyes-wide-open moment for the country. Sure, sports betting scandals cropped up long before then. But those targeted by the FBI hinted at them happening at a larger scope and scale.

Florida sports betting regulators will not be the only ones who want to address these issues. Or even just the mere threat of them. Other states will follow suit. How many remains to be seen. Ditto for when they might join the fold. Some already have. A select few proposed (and, in some cases, enacted) similar policies before Florida.

Invariably, this could be a consensus approach. Levying harsher penalties upon those who oversee rigged operations, in particular, seems like it’ll become a benchmark. Will Florida be among the first to set it? We should know in a few months’, if not weeks’, time.

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