Early Friday afternoon it was officially announced that the DraftKings and FanDuel-backed measure in an attempt to legalize sports betting in the state of Florida. They were unable to make the ballot for 2022 and will now need to wait until 2024 until they can attempt to get onto the ballot. This is a complete travesty and not the way it should have gone, as now Floridians are not allowed to wager on sports.
Online casinos are the way to gamble in Florida, so make sure to do that if you want to scratch your betting itch.
Reaction
The reaction online seems to be negative as many people in the Sunshine State were excited about the potential to wager on their favorite sports. They had a chance to experience sports wagering from November 1st until December 4th as the Hard Rock Sportsbook was live throughout that time until the appellate court forced them to shut down their mobile app for the sportsbook.
The ballot for this initiative needed 891,589 signatures by February 1 and only recorded 477,000 signatures by Friday. There are two ways to legalize sports wagering in the next couple of years; one, they would need the Seminole Tribe’s sports betting agreement with the state of Florida to be negotiated to be less monopolistic. The other option would be getting the ballot reinstated by the appeals court or the state’s legislature would need to revisit legal wagering in the 2022 session, which isn’t until March 11th.
These two sides have already reached an agreement before with the Hard Rock sportsbook, allowing Floridians to place bets for a little over a month. However, there are steps to appeal the decision and begin the process of recovering the sportsbook, giving the people of Florida hope to get back in on the action.
Not passing the bill doesn’t make sense as this proposal would have put tax revenues gained from people betting on sports into the Education Enhancement Trust Fund, which is used to supplement public school money and enhance the learning of children attending public schools across the state.
There are a few reasons why the bill failed to reach the necessary number of signatures, with one being an uptick in COVID cases throughout the state. The spread of the virus has made it more difficult to hold gatherings, including events attempting to get people to sign the proposal and reach the required number to get on the ballot.
Conclusion
There are a lot of people that are able to bet legally on sports, but unfortunately the state of Florida is failing their citizens by keeping it illegal to do so. Other states with clearly successful systems such as New York and New Jersey have adopted sports betting and are making incredible amounts of money for the state, cutting deals with the sportsbook providers to get a portion of the money these organizations take in. This is a disappointing day in Florida’s history and should cause public outrage to legalize gambling.
The COVID outbreak could have been a huge undertaking to this proposal, but it seems like getting more involved earlier in the process could have made this a more successful venture. I personally believe there will be sports betting in the state of Florida before the 2024 ballot due to public pressure and with Florida being one of the biggest untapped places left in the continental United States trying to legalize it. Just because it becomes legal does not mean that anyone would need to partake in it.
Looking at the world and exactly what is legal in the United States, there are a lot of things that are worse for a person than betting on what color the Gatorade will be dumped on the winning head coach in the Super Bowl. The fact remains that this should have been legalized once the Supreme Court deemed it legal in the United States instead of how it is going at this moment.
