Florida Gambling Bill Dies in Committee

• Florida’s HB147 has died in committee
• The wide-ranging gambling bill would have increased penalties for illegal gambling and bribing professional athletes, barred gaming regulators from employment in the gaming industry, and decoupled thoroughbred tracks from live racing
• The bill was seen as potentially harmful to Florida’s racing industry

The regular legislative session is over in Florida and with it are the hopes of passing HB1467, the most comprehensive proposal related to gambling this year.

The bill, introduced in February by Florida Reps. John Snyder (R-Palm Beach) and Adam Anderson (R-Pinellas), had many goals, including:

• To increase the penalties for both operating illegal gambling enterprises, and bribing an athlete to throw a game, from misdemeanors to third-degree felonies on the first offense
• To bar Florida Gaming Control Commission employees from working in the state gaming industry for two years after leaving their jobs
• To formally legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports
• To allow Tampa Bay Downs and Gulfstream Park (the state’s two operational thoroughbred tracks) to “decouple” from live racing, no longer requiring them to offer a quota of races to operate other gambling activities such as slots and poker

The bill passed the state House of representatives and was referred to the Senate Rules Committee on April 28. But it never received a Senate hearing in the final week of this year’s session.

Its failure is seen as a win by the thoroughbred industry, which noted that decoupling proved to be the final nail in the coffin of harness racing in the state.

Florida’s legislative session ended last Friday. And though lawmakers voted to reconvene on May 12 and extend the regular session until June 6 to complete a still-unapproved budget, the agenda is limited to just a handful of items, and gambling is not one of them.