How much is a gambling liscense?

Question

I live in florida and am interested in starting an online poker site. I am really looking for the best deal I can get, which means if I have to travel somewhere, even out of the country, just to do it, I will. Any information would be great, even referrals.

Answer 1

Yes, like he said it's illegal here in the US and almost all gambling sites are in the Caribbean or elsewhere.  If you are serious about moving and doing this you should probably do your research on what is already out there and where they are located.

Answer 2

You can't open an online poker site in Florida.  Thanks to the Bush administration that is illegal.

So you would have to research which countries have more reasonable gambling laws and open one up there.

Starting an online poker site that can compete with the big boys is going to cost you millions.  You are going to need to develop all the software and get a team of programmers and customer service people together.  I doubt you could really run the company with fewer than 12 members of staff.

As such a big investment, the first thing you need to do is get with a CPA and a good lawyer.  Figure out the financial side of things and the legal aspects.  Then research the best countries in the world to open the site in.  Your lawyer will doubtless hire another lawyer in that country to figure out all the legal aspects.

It's a massive undertaking, and a the advertising budget alone is going to be huge.  With Full Tilt and Poker Stars advertising on national TV in multiple countries, it's going to be a hard job to convince people to come play on your site, versus the major sites with the celebrity players on.