One of the more widely accepted forms of sports betting in Florida is pari-mutuel wagering. Being able to bet on the horses and on races all across the country are one of the best ways to really increase the excitement surrounding an already thrilling event. Knowing whether or not it is legal to wager on these events can help residents to rest easy before they place their hard-earned money on a race or two.

We’ll go over all of the aspects of Florida horse racing betting as well as review the legal aspect of betting on the horses, both at land-based locations and online. Betting venues available to residents will be listed below, as well as several reviews of online horse racing betting websites. Just think of this as your all-inclusive guide to betting on Florida horse races.

Florida horse racing betting law is codified under Chapter 550 of the Florida Statutes and Division: 61D of the state administrative code. The Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering oversees horse racing betting and other forms of parimutuel wagering. This also includes jai alai frontons and poker rooms.

Best Online Horse Racing Betting Websites

• Orlando Speed World. Race Tracks Meeting & Event Planning Services 10 YEARS.
• Florida’s gambling laws are regulated and all legal gambling includes casino gaming, tribal gambling, casino boats, horse racing, dog racing, Bingo, the state lottery, and charitable gambling. The casino boats are interesting because they allow bettors to board luxury boats that travel offshore where gambling is technically not illegal.
• Long regarded the home of winter horse racing in the United States, the development of racing in Florida and its place as a major breeding center for thoroughbreds has combined to make the Sunshine State a year-around fixture for horseplayers looking to bet major stakes races.
• Florida horse racing is available to bettors through a few different types of venues. You have several racetracks sprinkled throughout the state at which you can participate in live horse race betting at a physical location. These tracks also often offer simulcast events that take place outside of Florida to place wagers on as well.

There are multiple ways to get involved in horse races for sports betting in Florida. One of the main ways is using online betting sites. They have plenty of horse races that will pop up and give many betting options. Once you sign up which requires bettors to be 18, there will be plenty of promotions that may help bettors when it comes to wagering on horse races. Banking options that you have are very easy to use as well.

Bovada - Florida's Favorite Online Horse Racing Betting Site

For nearly twenty years, there has been one online horse racing betting site that has led the way for all others to follow. Bovada racebook is one of the most comprehensive online pari-mutuel betting resources for Florida residents. As the only online gaming site that caters exclusively to US residents, its main purpose is to bring American bettors an enjoyable and satisfactory betting experience.

As a top online horse racing betting website, Bovada provides its players with state of the art security measures and top notch customer service. You’ll never have to wait more than a few minutes to be connected with a live representative when you call the toll-free number provided, and your emails are answered well within 24 hours.

Bovada’s comprehensive racebook allows bettors to view races that are taking place across the country. From horse racing events in California to a race at Gulfstream Park, bettors will have their choice of horses to wager on. You can even choose to bet on races in the UK, Europe, and even Australia. There’s nothing you can’t do at Bovada Racebook.

BetOnline - The Best Horse Betting Website For Residents

If you’ve lived in Florida for more than a few days, you know that traffic is horrible. So trying to travel across the state in order to get to your nearest racetrack and betting location can be a total nightmare. With BetOnline racebook, though, you can access all of the day’s racing events from your computer or smartphone.

When you first log on, you’ll see the day’s scheduled events and the odds for each horse running in the event. From there you just choose the race and horse you’d like to bet on and it’s added to your bet slip. If you’re not looking to wager on any of the races that day, you can head over to BetOnline’s horse racing calendar, which has the times, dates, and runners for each racing event across the country.

In addition to one of the largest selections of races to wager on, BetOnline also has some of the most generous horse racing betting promotions available. You can receive up to a 7% rebate daily when you place your bets online. There’s no cap when it comes to this, giving you limitless returns every day you place a wager. They also have a deposit bonus which will match 25% of your funds every time you deposit money into your account, up to $1,000 each time. You can beat the bonuses at BetOnline.

Is It Legal To Bet On Horse Racing In Florida?

Betting on horse racing in Florida is a completely legal activity. While most forms of sports betting activity have been restricted and regulated by either state or federal law, betting on the horses has not. Whether you’re placing your wagers at the host track or an off-track betting venue, you are wholly within your legal rights. The only unlawful form of pari-mutuel betting in the state of Florida would be at an unlicensed facility or through the use of a singular bookie.

For those residents who enjoy betting the horses but don’t want to take a road trip to the nearest racetrack or OTB location will be happy to know that online horse racing betting is also legal in Florida. There are actually no laws on the books that reference using an online racebook. Because of this, all forms of online horse racing betting are legalized and available for residents of the Sunshine state. For recommendations on the best online horse racing betting sites, check out our reviews a little further down on the page.

Can Florida Residents Bet On The Triple Crown?

Florida residents who are also fans of horse racing’s biggest event will be happy to know that they are perfectly able to bet on the Triple Crown. There are no laws prohibiting betting on the races, and you’re well within your rights to place those wagers, so long as you’re doing it at licensed land-based locations.

OTB locations will have all three legs of the race for you to bet on, but if you’re looking for the best betting options available for all three races, head over to an online racebook. These horse betting websites allow users to enjoy the race in newer and more exciting ways.

Best Ways To Bet On The Horses

Horse racing betting provides a ton of different options for bettors. The more common types of pari-mutuel wagers placed are called straight bets. If you’re looking for a simple bet that doesn’t require much research into the horses running, you should check these types of wagers out. The straight bets you can place are called win, place, or show bets. These allow you to pick horses, and as long as they end up finishing in first, second, or third place, your bet is considered a winner.

If you want to put a little extra on this wager, you can choose to bet “across the board”. With this wager, you place an equal amount of money on the win, place, and show positions. If your horse comes in first place, you collect winnings on all three portions of the bet. If the horse comes in second, you collect the winnings on the place and show bets. Finishing third will allow you to collect the show bet.

Online Horse Betting In Florida

There are also wagers called “exotic” wagers. These up the stakes by quite a bit, depending on which wager you choose to place. Depending on how lucky you’re feeling, you can choose something called an exacta, where you must choose the two horses who will finish in first and second place. A trifecta ups that to naming the first three finishing horses in exact order, and superfecta will have you naming the finishing order of the first four horses. If even one horse doesn’t finish where you say it will, your bet loses. But, with the higher risk, come much more profitable payouts.

While land-based horse tracks might include a couple of exotic wagers, they generally stick to straight bets. For a full variety of both straight and exotic wagers, your best bet is to go to an online horse racing betting site. These online racebooks provide the largest selection of wagering options for players looking to bet on the horses.

Which Racetracks Can I Bet On Horse Racing At?

Horse Race Betting In Sarasota Florida

In Florida, there are a number of different horse racing betting tracks scattered across the state. We’ve listed all of the active horse racing tracks in the Sunshine State, all of which provide stalls for you to place your wagers at. We also have a list of the off-track betting locations in the state. These are areas that allow bettors to wager on races that are taking place at different tracks.

These OTB locations will generally simulcast races taking place in the state, as well as several races out of state. They do not cover every race going on across the country, and you’ll be hard pressed to find an OTB venue that will take wagers on international horse racing events. To find those types of wagers, you’ll have to try an online racebook. We’ve gone ahead and reviewed a few of our favorite online horse racing betting websites at the bottom of this page.

• Tampa Bay Downs
• Hialeah Park
• Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino
• Florida Quarter Horse Racing
• Calder Casino
• Palm Meadows Training Center

Off-Track Betting Locations In Florida

• Creek Entertainment Gretna
• Premier Turf Club
• Tampa Bay Downs
• Racing Systems International

Sports Betting In Florida

TAMPA, Fla. — Super Bowl LV is right around the corner, and sports fans across the region who like to put a wager on the game are watching the playoffs closely to see how the final face-off will shape up.

Betting on the Super Bowl is big business. Last year, the American Gaming Association estimated that Americans wagered some $7 billion on last year’s game in Miami, and the numbers keep climbing.

What You Need To Know

• Betting on the Super Bowl is a multibillion-dollar business


• Some bets, called 'prop bets,' have nothing to do with who wins the game


• Sports betting is illegal in the state of Florida

There’s much more to bet on than who wins or what the spread might be. Some of the most interesting betting options have nothing at all to do with which team might emerge victorious. They’re called proposition bets, or “prop bets,” and they can be as straightforward as who ends up the game’s MVP or as obscure as the color of the sports drink the winning team might dump on their coach.

The result of the coin toss at the beginning of the game is also a popular prop bet, as is the length of time it takes for the year’s special guest to get all the way through singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Sports betting sites like BookMaker and BetNow often cater to fans’ sense of the weird with their own list of available prop bets; here are some of last year’s, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs beating the San Francisco 49ers:

• Will any player be arrested in Miami after the game?
• Will Ricky Martin make an appearance on stage?
• Will any player other than the quarterback take a direct snap?
• Will a fan run onto the field during the game?
• Will Floyd Mayweather wager over/under $1 million on the game?

Fans often vote on those famous Super Bowl commercials as well, trying to win some cash by guessing which beer company’s ad will air first or whether or not a specific B-list celebrity will utter their now ages-old catchphrase while hawking a particular product.

Before you get all excited about plunking down some cash on a weird Super Bowl outcome, however, remember that betting on sports is illegal in the state of Florida. While there is some argument over whether heading to an offshore betting website actually skirts the law or defies it outright, Florida Statute 849.14 makes a pretty strong case that no wagering on sports—with certain exemptions for pari-mutuel betting on things like horse racing, jai alai and, up until the beginning of this year, greyhound racing—is allowed in the Sunshine State:

“Whoever stakes, bets or wagers any money or other thing of value upon the result of any trial or contest of skill, speed or power or endurance of human or beast, or whoever receives in any manner whatsoever any money or other thing of value staked, bet or wagered, or offered for the purpose of being staked, bet or wagered, by or for any other person upon any such result, or whoever knowingly becomes the custodian or depositary of any money or other thing of value so staked, bet, or wagered upon any such result, or whoever aids, or assists, or abets in any manner in any of such acts all of which are hereby forbidden, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.”

Is Horse Betting Legal In Florida

That said, we know Super Bowl betting is big business. So if you’ve just gotta get some skin in the game, you might be better off making a friendly wager with a friend—or calling one in one of the many states (or DC!) where sports betting is already legal.