Florida Gaming Bill Seeks to Legalize DFS, Strengthen Sports Betting Enforcement

^{Rep. Dana Trabulsy, who introduced HB 189 as a way to regulate daily fantasy sports and crack down on illegal betting activity in Florida. (Photo: Sarah Gray / Florida House of Representatives)}

A new bill winding its way through the Florida legislature would seek to modernize gambling laws in the state by officially regulating daily fantasy sports and taking steps to protect against illegal betting at sportsbooks.

The 100-page bill, HB 189, recently passed the House Industries and Professional Activities Subcommittee, and will get further looks by lawmakers when the next Florida legislative session begins in January.

Bill Provides Definition for DFS Offerings, Prohibits College Contests

Under the bill, daily fantasy sports (DFS) would be legal in Florida, provided that they operate by requiring users to choose multiple players and win or lose based on the statistical performances of those athletes. 

Single-athlete pick'em contests would be outlawed, as would any contest in which the score, point spread, or other team performance metrics contributed to the outcome. 

In addition, daily fantasy contests wouldn’t be allowed on games involving college athletes or younger participants. There is language in the bill to ensure that DFS contests are truly based on sports, with no use of other card or casino gambling games used in conjunction with the athlete results.

Clarifying the law on DFS contests would give operators more certainty on standards of what they can and cannot offer in Florida. In 2024, the Florida Attorney General ordered Betr, PrizePicks, and Underdog to stop offering their fantasy contests, which resembled prop betting. However, officials had largely left along operators like DraftKings and FanDuel who had been offering traditional DFS games since state law never explicitly addressed DFS.

Felony Charges for Fixing Sporting Events Included in Legislation

In the wake of recent national sports betting scandals, HB 189 would also provide more criminal penalties for threats to the integrity of sporting events. 

The bill creates new felony charges for a wide range of offenses related to fixing results and conspiring to alter the outcomes of sporting events. It would also make it a criminal offense to place a wager on a sporting event if an individual knows that the event is being manipulated, even if they themselves weren’t part of a scheme to fix a match or a particular wager.

The bill was sponsored by Florida Representative Dana Trabulsy (R-Fort Pierce). The legislation also includes stronger penalties against illegal gambling, including giving law enforcement more tools for seizing illegal machines. Rep. Trabulsy says that she’s still open to refining the language of the bill in order to ensure that legal and charitable operators aren’t unjustly punished by the new regulation while ramping up consequences for operators running illegal machines.

The Commerce Committee is expected to take up HB 189 when the legislature reconvenes in January. While several gambling bills were considered in Florida last session, none of them were passed into law.