{"id":98312,"date":"2019-02-14T04:42:31","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T12:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=98312"},"modified":"2019-02-14T04:42:31","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T12:42:31","slug":"florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Senate President Galvano Wants Sports Betting, Gambling Reforms But Path Now Littered With Pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Senate President Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) is not only planning a bill that would legalize sports betting in the Sunshine State, he wants to introduce another comprehensive gambling reform package, of the type that has failed over the past few years<\/a>, Florida Politics <\/em>reports.<\/p>\n

\"Florida
Heavy Lift: Galvano believes any push to legalize Florida sports betting without a referendum would be fraught with legal challenges. (Image: Brandenton Herald)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Galvano\u2019s efforts to reform Florida\u2019s gambling laws have stalled in\u00a0consecutive sessions, his mission this year has gotten a lot tougher. Last November, Florida residents passed the \u201cVoter Control of Gambling\u201d amendment (Amendment 3), which will give voters the final say on any bill passed by the legislature that proposes the expansion of casino gambling.<\/p>\n

Galvano has said this will weaken the legislature\u2019s powers to negotiate with the powerful Seminole Tribe, effectively handing the tribe a monopoly on casino gaming for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

But Galvano also believes that the legislature could legalize sports betting without the need for a referendum.<\/p>\n

Is Sports Betting Casino Gambling?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The amendment declares that Florida voters \u201cshall have the exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling\u201d and its intent is to prevent the creation of new casinos. Sports betting is not mentioned at all, and there is a strong argument that it does not fall into the realm of \u201ccasino gambling,\u201d especially since it doesn\u2019t exist at any of the state\u2019s casinos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are operating in a different world, post-constitutional amendments, but I think there is an opportunity for sports betting in the state of Florida,\u201d Galvano told the Tampa Bay Business Journal<\/em> recently. \u201cIt\u2019s an activity that is occurring and not regulated, and we are not collecting and sharing revenues from that activity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nevertheless, a legislative push for sports betting is likely to face legal challenges. \u00a0John Sowinski, president of\u00a0Voters in Charge, told Florida Politics<\/em> that \u201conly Florida voters, by constitutional initiative, have the authority to authorize any form of casino gambling, including sports betting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd any legislation that ignores Amendment 3 and its overwhelming voter support is patently unconstitutional and an affront to the will of the people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

For this reason, Galvano believes it would be \u201cprudent\u201d to have a referendum on sports betting, whether it\u2019s required by law or not.<\/p>\n

Seminoles Oppose Florida Sports Betting<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the meantime, his bill will concentrate on issues unrelated to casino gaming that he believes fall outside of the amendment\u2019s reach — matters that have “a comprehensive impact on the parimutuels, from tax rates to hours of operation, things of that nature that we can still address.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s parimutuels offer horse and dog racing as well as other card games — and in some cases, slot machines — but voters\u2019 also opted to ban greyhound racing<\/a> in November, which will bring substantial changes to the sector over the next few years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Seminole tribe currently has no compact with the state but continues to make hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue-share payments in good faith. But the tribe is opposed to all forms of commercial gambling expansion, preferring to preserve a status quo where it is the dominant party.<\/p>\n

The tribe has said it would consider withholding revenue-share payments if Florida legalized sports betting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Senate President Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) is not only planning a bill that would legalize sports betting in the Sunshine State, he wants to introduce another comprehensive gambling reform package, of the type that has failed over the past few years, Florida Politics reports. While Galvano\u2019s efforts to reform Florida\u2019s gambling laws have stalled in\u00a0consecutive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":98316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,61,1074,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFlorida Senate President Wants Sports Betting, Gambling Reforms<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Senate President Bill Galvano believes Florida sports betting possible without referendum but the state should have one anyway to avoid legal challenges.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida Senate President Wants Sports Betting, Gambling Reforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senate President Bill Galvano believes Florida sports betting possible without referendum but the state should have one anyway to avoid legal challenges.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-14T12:42:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Galvano.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1140\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"756\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/\",\"name\":\"Florida Senate President Wants Sports Betting, Gambling Reforms\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Galvano.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-14T12:42:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-14T12:42:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Senate President Bill Galvano believes Florida sports betting possible without referendum but the state should have one anyway to avoid legal challenges.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-senate-president-wants-sports-betting-gambling-reforms\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Galvano.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Galvano.jpg\",\"width\":1140,\"height\":756,\"caption\":\"Heavy Lift: Galvano believes any push to legalize Florida sports betting without a referendum would be fraught with legal challenges. 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He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. 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