Florida has one legal sportsbook. On June 10, 2026, its Attorney General sent letters to three of the largest payment networks in the world naming BetOnline as one of seven offshore operators it wants cut off. That’s a new development — Florida’s last enforcement round, in February 2025, left BetOnline alone entirely.
Is BetOnline legal in Florida? No. It never has been, and naming it in a letter to Visa doesn’t change the underlying statute. What changed is who Florida is threatening to punish for it — and it isn’t bettors.
Florida’s Betting Market Is a Monopoly, Not a Gray Area
Start with the baseline, because Florida’s situation looks different from states running a competitive licensed market. Hard Rock Bet is it. The Seminole Tribe’s compact survived a federal appeals reversal, then a Supreme Court cert denial in June 2024, and mobile betting went live statewide on December 7, 2023. No DraftKings, no FanDuel, no BetMGM app operating legally anywhere in the state.
That’s the frame Florida’s offshore enforcement sits inside. There’s no “just switch to a licensed competitor” answer here the way there is in Louisiana or Indiana — the legal alternative is a single operator with no in-state rival, which is part of why offshore accounts never disappeared after 2023 the way regulators probably hoped. BetOnline’s brand hub covers how that same one-book-or-offshore split plays out state by state; Florida’s version is just more concentrated than most, since there isn’t even a second licensed app to point to.
Is BetOnline Legal in Florida Under the Statute?
Florida Statute 849.14 makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to “stake, bet, or wager any money or other thing of value upon the result of any trial or contest of skill, speed, power, or endurance.” That’s the sports-betting provision, and unlike some states where the individual-bettor language gets buried inside a broader internet-gambling statute, 849.14 names the bettor directly. Penalty: up to 60 days in jail, a $500 fine.
The felony exposure lives in two different sections entirely. Bookmaking — “taking or receiving, while engaged in the business or profession of gambling, any bet or wager” — is a third-degree felony under 849.25. Keeping a gambling house, 849.01, is also a third-degree felony. Both target whoever runs the operation, not whoever clicks “place bet” from a phone in Orlando. BetOnline operates out of Panama, licensed by the Panama Gaming Commission, which is exactly why Florida can write a felony statute that reaches bookmaking and still have no practical way to prosecute the company under it.
Zero Individual Prosecutions, Same as Everywhere Else
No Florida resident has been charged under 849.14 for using an offshore sportsbook. The state’s 2026 enforcement tally — more than 3,100 illegal gaming machines seized, roughly $1.7 million in gambling proceeds recovered, 81 arrests — comes almost entirely from illegal slot-machine storefronts, the kind of unlicensed cash businesses that show up in strip malls, not individual BetOnline accounts.
The June 2026 Letter: Why This Round Named BetOnline
Florida’s first offshore sweep, in February 2025, sent cease-and-desist notices to three operators: Bovada, MyBookie, and BetUS, addressed to their parent companies (Harp Media B.V., Gaming Services Provider N.V., and Milvus Ltd, respectively). BetOnline wasn’t on that list.
That changed in June 2026. Attorney General James Uthmeier sent letters to Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, this time naming seven operators whose transactions the state wants blocked: BetOnline, Bovada, BetUS, SportsBetting, BetNow, XBet, and Lucky Rebel. Visa got until June 24 to respond with corrective steps. “Payment processors such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express undermine Florida law,” Uthmeier posted, adding a blunter line for anyone still processing: “If you’re a payment processor and you’re helping one of those sites, you are breaking the law.”
| Round | Date | Who got the letter | Named operators |
|---|---|---|---|
| First sweep | February 2025 | The operators’ parent companies directly | Bovada, MyBookie, BetUS |
| Second sweep | June 10, 2026 | Visa, Mastercard, American Express | BetOnline, Bovada, BetUS, SportsBetting, BetNow, XBet, Lucky Rebel |
The gap between the two rows is the story. Round one tried writing to companies with no US office and no reason to answer. Round two writes to companies headquartered in San Francisco, Purchase, and New York — entities Florida can actually subpoena, sue, or threaten with a racketeering theory that has teeth.
Why the Target Is the Card Network, Not the Bettor
The legal theory behind the letters is Florida’s RICO Act — the argument that a payment processor knowingly facilitating an illegal gambling business could itself face racketeering exposure. Uthmeier has called the broader effort a game of “whack-a-mole,” which is a reasonably honest description of trying to choke off card transactions to operators based outside US jurisdiction. It followed HB 189, a bill from Rep. Dana Trabulsy that would have expanded the state’s authority over offshore platforms and raised penalties tied to unlicensed internet wagering — it cleared three committees and then ran out of time in the 2026 session.
None of that theory has been tested in court against a card network yet. What it does tell you: Florida’s 2026 strategy is aimed at the banking rail, not at the person funding an account. A Bitcoin or USDT deposit routed from a personal wallet carries no card network at all, which is a structural reason crypto funding sidesteps this particular fight regardless of what happens to Visa’s June 24 response.
What Actually Changes for a Florida Bettor
Practically, not much yet. The June 2026 letters are addressed to Visa, Mastercard, and Amex — not to BetOnline directly, and not to individual account holders. If Visa complies and starts declining transactions coded to these operators, the friction shows up as a declined card, the same kind of friction that already shows up whenever a bank flags a gambling merchant code. Crypto deposits aren’t part of that fight.
Florida isn’t the first state to put BetOnline on a named list. Mississippi’s Gaming Commission sent a similar round of letters naming BetOnline, Bovada, MyBookie, BetWhale, and BetUS back in July 2024. What’s different in Florida’s version is the mechanism: going after the card network under a racketeering theory instead of sending the operator a letter it can ignore from Panama. Whether it works is a separate question from whether it’s legal, and as of this writing neither Visa’s response nor a court test of the RICO argument has landed.
The Practical Reality Beneath the Headline
Is BetOnline legal in Florida? No — that hasn’t moved since before the June letters, and it won’t move because of them either. What moved is Florida’s enforcement target: from operators writing letters nobody outside the US has to answer, to payment networks that very much operate inside US jurisdiction and have a real incentive to comply. BetOnline’s actual withdrawal record — crypto in 24 to 48 hours, checks running 7 to 15 business days by courier — matters more to a Florida bettor’s day-to-day experience than a letter addressed to Visa’s legal department. The broader question of whether the book is worth using at all is a different one from whether Florida can reach you for using it, and right now, on the bettor side, it still can’t.