Can You Sports Bet in Miami? Laws, Venues, and Apps

Sports betting in Miami is legal, and you have two ways to do it: download the Hard Rock Bet app and wager from anywhere in Florida, or drive to a Seminole Tribe casino and bet in person. Under a 2021 gaming compact that runs through July 31, 2051, the Seminole Tribe holds exclusive rights to sports betting across the state, so Hard Rock Bet is the only legal mobile sportsbook, and Seminole properties are the only legal retail ones.¹ No DraftKings, no FanDuel, no BetMGM.

Betting From Your Phone

Hard Rock Bet is available on iOS, Android, and through a web browser. Setting up an account takes a few minutes. You’ll enter your legal name, date of birth, residential address, and the last four digits of your Social Security number, and the platform runs that against government databases to confirm your identity and age. If the automated check doesn’t clear you, you’ll upload a photo of a driver’s license or passport. That verification happens once.

Your location, on the other hand, is checked every time you place a wager. The app uses geofencing to confirm you’re physically inside Florida. Step over into Georgia or sail past territorial waters on a cruise, and the app locks you out until you’re back on Florida soil. Where you live doesn’t matter; a tourist from New York standing in Brickell can bet just as easily as a lifelong resident.

Hard Rock Bet accepts bank transfers, credit cards where permitted, PayPal, and Venmo. You can set daily, monthly, and yearly deposit limits through the responsible gaming controls. Lower a limit and it takes effect immediately; raise one and it waits until the current period ends, which is a deliberate guardrail against chasing a losing streak.²

Where to Bet in Person Near Miami

Two Seminole properties are within a reasonable drive. No racetrack, pari-mutuel facility, or non-tribal casino in the Miami area operates a sportsbook.

Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood

The Hollywood property is the flagship South Florida sportsbook. It has 40 self-service kiosks running 24 hours a day and eight staffed betting windows. The windows are open Sunday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. and Friday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.³

Seminole Casino Coconut Creek

Coconut Creek sits about an hour north of downtown Miami and offers five betting windows plus more than 30 kiosks. Windows run daily from 8 a.m. to midnight, and the kiosks are available around the clock.⁴ Both locations take cash and print physical betting slips.

Who Can Legally Bet

You must be 21 or older to place a sports bet in Florida, in person or through the app.⁴ That’s higher than the 18-year minimum that applies to the lottery, poker rooms, and pari-mutuel horse racing. Being physically in Florida at the moment you place the bet is a separate requirement that applies to every single wager.

What You Can Bet On

The menu covers the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, international soccer, tennis, golf, and auto racing, among others.³ Standard bet types are all available: moneylines, point spreads, over/unders, parlays, futures, and live in-game action.

College sports are on the board, with one restriction worth knowing before you build a parlay. You cannot place player prop bets on college athletes. Team bets like the moneyline or spread are fine; anything tied to an individual player’s stat line, such as passing yards or rebounds, is prohibited. The ban is intended to reduce the harassment student athletes face from bettors with money on their personal performance.

Taxes on What You Win

Every dollar of sports betting winnings is taxable federal income, whether or not you receive a tax form. Florida has no state income tax, so nothing is owed to Tallahassee, but the IRS expects to be paid.

Mandatory federal withholding of 24% kicks in only when your net winnings from a single wager exceed $5,000 and the payout is at least 300 times your bet.⁵ A $10 bet that returns $4,000 triggers no withholding, because $4,000 doesn’t clear the $5,000 line. A $20 bet that returns $7,500 does: the sportsbook keeps $1,800 before paying you.⁶

Starting in 2026, the W-2G reporting threshold for certain gambling winnings rises from $600 to $2,000.⁷ A form in your mailbox is not what creates the tax obligation. You’re required to report all winnings regardless.

You can deduct gambling losses, but only if you itemize on Schedule A, and only up to the amount you report in winnings. Won $8,000 and lost $10,000? You deduct $8,000, not $10,000. A dated log of your bets with amounts and outcomes makes the deduction straightforward to claim and defend.⁸

Why Offshore Sites and Local Bookies Are a Bad Idea

Plenty of offshore websites, unlicensed apps, and local bookies will take your bet in Miami. All of them carry risks that Hard Rock Bet doesn’t. If an unlicensed operator refuses to pay, you have no recourse. You can’t complain to the Florida Gaming Control Commission, and you can’t sue without admitting you participated in illegal gambling. The FBI has warned that unregulated sportsbooks often have ties to organized crime, and that bettors who can’t repay illegal bookmakers face real risks of extortion and violence.⁹

Florida law treats placing an illegal bet on a contest of skill or endurance as a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.¹⁰ Running an illegal bookmaking operation escalates from a third-degree felony on a first offense to a first-degree felony on a third.¹¹

If a Bet Is Settled Wrong

Disputes follow a two-step process. First, file a complaint directly with the Seminole Tribal Gaming Commission using their complaint form. The Tribal Commission reviews the case and issues a decision.¹²

If you disagree with the outcome, you have 30 days to appeal to the Florida Gaming Control Commission. The appeal must be sent by U.S. mail with return receipt requested to the FGCC’s Tallahassee office. It needs your full legal name, mailing address, a copy of the Tribal Commission’s decision, and a brief explanation of why you’re seeking review. You then have another 30 days after filing the notice to submit your detailed arguments. The appeal is limited to evidence you already presented at the Tribal Commission level, so you can’t introduce new information on review.¹²

If Betting Becomes a Problem

Hard Rock Bet includes timeouts and full self-exclusion alongside the deposit limits. A timeout locks you out for a shorter period. Self-exclusion closes your account for a longer term, blocks access to both the app and the desktop site, and suspends marketing communications. Neither can be undone before the period you chose runs out.² You set these up under “Responsible Gaming” in the “My Account” section. The Florida Gaming Control Commission separately maintains a statewide exclusion list for pari-mutuel facilities.¹³

1
Bureau of Indian Affairs. Department of the Interior Correspondence Regarding Seminole Tribe of Florida Gaming Compact
2
Hard Rock Digital. Responsible Gaming
3
Hard Rock Casino. Hard Rock Sportsbook, Now Open in Florida
4
Hard Rock Bet. Florida Sports Betting – Exclusively on Hard Rock Bet
5
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754 (01/2026)
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 3402 – Income Tax Collected at Source
7
Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-19
8
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 419, Gambling Income and Losses
9
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Great Odds, High Risk – The FBI Encourages U.S. Bettors to Know the Risks of Illegal Gambling
10
Florida Senate. Florida Code 849.14 – Unlawful to Bet on Result of Trial or Contest of Skill
11
Florida Senate. Chapter 849 – Gambling
12
Florida Gaming Control Commission. Patron Dispute Process
13
Florida Gaming Control Commission. Exclusion List