Florida ban on internet cafe gambling approved by state legislature

There’s nothing like a scandal to spur lawmakers into faster action that the usual laborious political process, a fact that has been well illustrated in Florida following a massive internet cafe ‘sweepstakes’ gambling fraud involving dozens of arrests and the resignation of the lieutenant governor .

Florida legislators reacted with impressive speed to the scandal in tightening up definitions of ‘sweepstakes’ style gambling and introducing new laws which zipped through the House and this week cleared the Senate as bill SB1030 on a vote of 36 – 4.

The Miami Herald reports that the measure is already on state Governor Rick Scott’s desk awaiting signature into law, although he may delay it somewhat in order to institute a promised final review in order to assuage the concerns of some politicians that it has been approved without a sufficiently deep scrutiny.

The sweeping nature of the definitions in the bill are still worrying some online gambling experts, who believe these are sufficiently broad to enable future application to the wider internet and mobile gambling – and especially poker – sector.

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