New Legislation In Florida Has Sportsbooks Fund Education

• Florida lawmakers are seeking to amend the Constitution of Florida to get sports betting opened on a commercial level.
• Sportsbooks in Florida have already been passed as a regulated market with the Seminole Tribe of Florida earlier this year.
• It is the argument of lawmakers that amending the constitution through a public vote would allow for all funding made by sports betting to go directly to funding the education system of the Sunshine State.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Sports betting in Florida was regulated earlier this year through the Seminole Tribe of Florida and their newly approved tribal gaming compact.

However, a new piece of legislation set to be seen in the 2022 session would negate this compact should it be passed by the legislature, and in doing so, put all of the sports gaming profits toward the statewide education system.

The Constitution of Florida requires that any commercial expansion to the gambling industry needs to be put to a public vote to amend its current rules. Should this new legislation pass in 2022, Florida voters would see it on their November 2022 ballots and it could be implemented as soon as 2023.

“The Florida Division of Elections just approved the committee’s request to be assigned an official serial number for ballot placement, so we may immediately begin the petition collection process and thereby initiate efforts to generate substantial revenue that can be directed to Florida’s public education system without raising taxes,” said Christina Johnson, a spokeswoman for the committee.

What Would This Mean For Sports Betting In The Sunshine State

Florida sportsbooks were supposed to be seen in late 2021 to 2022. This could still occur but as soon as the subject gets approval to be put on the November 2022 ballot, the new compact for sports betting by the Seminole Tribe of Florida will be void.

Lawmakers believe that legal gambling should happen in this manner rather than the manner that it is presently taking place because this will ensure that all profits go to the education system of Florida, the same way that proceeds from the Florida Lottery already do.

Now that the idea has been approved, signatures for the petition to get this subject on the ballot can begin to be collected. The Florida Education Champions committee will need to obtain 891,589 signatures that have been verified as real people before submitting them to the state by the February 1 deadline.

After that, the Supreme Court would need to give its approval to make it official.

Now What?

Florida has eight months to get the correct number of signatures and verify they are in fact real individuals.

It doesn’t seem likely that the Supreme Court will approve the measure to appear on the ballot as the Florida gambling industry will have already launched a sports betting market.

And while it would be nice to know that all the profits made by sportsbooks would go to education in the state, the money that will be given to Florida by the Seminole Tribe on an annual basis has not been specifically allocated to go to any certain number of initiatives, which means that the legislation that has already passed could help education in the state, without any bumps in the road or clashing with the Tribe in the long run.

Florida regulated sports betting should be approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior by July and from there, sportsbooks can begin to open in the state.