On Monday, the Florida Gaming Control Commission (FGCC) announced that it has sent cease and desist orders to three companies operating online casinos that Floridians can access. The recipients’ gambling websites include some of the most well-known offshore casinos, including Bovada.
While there have been recent examples of these operators complying with US state regulators’ wishes, compliance is far from a guarantee. The enforcement actions further set the stage for potential regulated online casino play in Florida’s future.
FGCC demands operators leave Florida
According to a Feb. 3 press release from the FGCC, the recipients of the communications are “overseas bookmakers and casinos.” The recipients are:
- Milvus Ltd, d/b/a BetUS.com.pa
- Harp Media B.V. d/b/a Bovada.lv
- Gaming Services Provider, N.V. d/b/a MyBookie.ag
The release continues to explain that these gaming websites are committing felony offenses by accepting wagers from people in Florida. It specifies that the only legal slots and table games in the state exist at casinos operated by Seminole Gaming.
This is far from the first time that the relatively young FGCC has tried to interrupt online gaming that it viewed as violating state law. In 2023, for example, the FGCC sent similar orders targeting “fantasy against the house” games.
Action from the recipients might not be as forthcoming in this instance as it has been in the past, however.
International operations complicate regulation
None of the recipients are registered entities in Florida or anywhere else in the United States, complicating enforcement actions against them by US states. Regardless, these actions have produced some desired results in the past.
Harp Media, for example, has ceased accepting real-money bets from people in over a dozen US states so far. Some of those restrictions have come in response to similar cease and desist letters.
Harp Media has been somewhat of an outlier among offshore companies offering iGaming to people in the US in terms of responding to these demands. If Florida and Seminole Gaming extend their relationship to include online casino play, these demands might intensify.
Regulated online casino play could be coming to Florida
In 2024, a set of court rulings from the Florida and United States supreme courts gave strong legal clearance to the current model for legal online sports betting in the state. With that issue settled, iGaming could be next.
Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International and the CEO of Seminole Gaming, made it clear that the companies want to expand their gaming compact with Florida to cover iGaming. That would require the drafting of an amendment to the existing compact, approval from the Florida legislature, and approval from the US Dept. of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Upon successful execution of the compact, that would make Hard Rock Bet the sole legal online casino option in Florida, much like it currently is for online sports wagering. The compact terms would specify any revenue sharing payments the state would receive.
Those payments would give the FGCC further incentive to protect the state-sanctioned monopoly of Hard Rock Bet. Regardless of the time frame for new compact negotiations, the FGCC is already involved with enforcing that standard.